Paradox
by x A Ninny Mouse x
Summary: When half of the team disappears, and another mysterious group appears with an unbelievable explanation, it will lead to a race against time to save the world from an old foe! Sequel to 'And Then There Were Seven'.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: x A Ninny Mouse x is BACK and ready for action! …So long as I don't have to move. XD (Seriously, I am the laziest person in the history of **_**ever**_**! That's a **_**long **_**time!) Ahh, this has been a difficult two weeks… The outline was easy, but it took me five days to realize that a story doesn't actually **_**need**_** a prologue. DX So, this story is prologue-less. **

**Yeah, I'm doing a time travel story. A lot of people do those, but they're just so **_**fun!**_** And I randomly had an idea for something along these lines in Latin class, and I'm just like, "Hey, I should make a whole story out of this and put it on the internets!" (Yes, I say internets.) So, here it is. XD**

**Just so everybody knows, if you did the math from my last story, then you'd know that it took place in the year 2774. This takes place eight months later. If I don't specify a change in date, then it's the same as last time.**

**For future reference, I have never actually been to a high school party. Just sayin'.**

**DISCLAIMER: Oh, how I hate these. This one will count for the whole story. I own nothing except for Sive, and all other OC's in this story (there are a **_**lot**_** of them!), and the actual storyline.**

_April 21, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

"Loonatics, we have a problem," Zadavia stated, her image appearing out of nowhere. That had really startled me at first, and I had only very recently stopped jumping three feet off the ground when she did it. I had barely managed to get used to her messages at odd hours of the night, so I was happy that one came at 11 AM.

"What's goin' on, Zadavia?" Ace asked as most of the team assembled in front of her image. Tech was the only one not there; he had been spending a lot of time in the lab lately, as in more than normal for him. Rev zipped off to get him.

"I suppose you've already heard about the robbery at the weapons depot?" Zadavia began. It was the biggest story on the news, but so far the police didn't have any leads.

Rev and Tech walked in then, and Tech looked exhausted. He had bags under his eyes, and his shoulders were slumped. "What happened to you?" Duck asked him sarcastically.

"I've been monitoring these weird power fluxes around Acmetropolis, but they only last for a few seconds, so I can't figure out what they are," Tech explained. "They're not something I'm worrying about just yet, but I still want to keep my eye on them. Did I miss anything?"

"This is about the robbery at the weapons depot," Zadavia continued. "They've figured out what's been stolen; a rather large laser cannon. The power to the building was cut, so we don't have security footage, and it was pitch black out due to a large, black cloud, but I believe it's fairly obvious who did it."

"Who else do we know dat likes takin' big things in the dark?" Ace asked. Tech shuddered, and then I caught on to who they were talking about. I had been given a crash course on the super villains that they had dealt with in the past, but it still took me a minute to remember some of them (I could still never remember the Martian's name.)

"That's, uh... Some kind of fabric..." I murmured, the name escaping me.

"Black Velvet, but at least you know who you're talking about," Lexi replied.

"But why's she only comin' back now? It's been... Around two years since she disappeared!" Ace exclaimed.

"Do-you-think-she's-trying-to-make-another-Shroudcaster-or-something-because-I-could-see-her-being-able-to-do-that-with-a-laser-cannon-if-she-made-the-right-adjustments-and-found-a-way-to-make-it-spread-darkness-but-she-did-it-last-time-so-I-don't-see-why-she-couldn't-do-it-again," Rev said quickly. I was able to understand everything he said by then, so I didn't have to ask someone for a translation.

"How was she able ta take it, though? The weapons depot is one of the most secure places in Acmetropolis, and unlike someone else we know, she can't stop time to get around the guards," Ace asked. I caught the reference to Time Skip, one of the villains whose name I could actually remember.

"The guards couldn't see what they were aiming for; it was too dark," Zadavia explained. "And until we know what she's planning, we'll have to wait until she makes another move. The second I hear more I'll let you know. Zadavia out."

Her image disappeared, and everyone went their separate ways; Duck and Lexi headed to the couch to watch TV, Ace headed to the training room, Rev headed to the air hockey table to play a game with himself, Slam headed to the kitchen, and Tech was about to head back to the lab before I stopped him.

"Tech, when was the last time you slept?" I asked, stepping between him and the door.

"Uhh..." he stared off in a random direction, trying to remember. He did that a lot, but hardly ever listened to the others when they told him to rest. He seemed to listen to me, though, so Ace enlisted me to be the one to make sure Tech got enough sleep to be ready for a fight at any time.

"Go to bed," I ordered in an exasperated tone. "Those fluxes, or whatever, aren't bugging anyone, you can't do anything about them, and if Velvet shows up, we'll need you to be alert and ready to fight back."

"But-"

"You don't want a repeat of last time you saw her, do you?" That convinced him. I usually knew just what to say to press people's buttons.

"Yeah, you're right," he replied after thinking it over for a moment. He walked towards his room, and I joined Lexi and Duck on the couch.

We only had to wait a few hours before we saw a large, black cloud in the distance out the window. Zadavia called moments later.

"Black Velvet has just been spotted entering the AcmeTech building," Zadavia stated urgently. "The power has been cut to the building as well as the usual black cloud she uses appearing overhead."

"AcmeTech is a popular target around here, isn't it?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, we can't just sit around here and do nothin'! Let's jet!" Ace ordered. We all dashed out of the room, put on our jetpacks, and flew out. That was one of the hardest things I had to figure out when I first joined; how the jetpacks worked. It was fun, but really difficult to figure out. Lexi said everyone other than Tech and Rev had trouble with them at first, too.

We got there in under ten minutes, but by then it was pitch black outside from the cloud. The fact that the power lines were all slashed and laying in the street didn't help, either. Tech had anticipated that, though, and gave us night vision contact lenses before we left. We were able to see easily with them, but I found it a little creepy how our eyes glowed red.

"We don't know what she's after, so we don't know where she is. We'll split up and look around," Ace declared. "Slam, Duck, you two take da top floors. Lex, you and I will cover da bottom floors. Sive, Tech, Rev, you three handle da middle. Call if ya find anything."

We went our separate ways. There were a total of 40 floors in the building, which meant about 13 floors per group. We decided to start at the 26th floor, a floor below where Slam and Duck were starting, and work our way down. At first, we didn't find anything. We made it through five floors of nothing but organized lab equipment and science experiments before even finding evidence of a break in.

The 19th floor was just one large lab room, but it looked more like the aftermath of a high school party. There was broken glass, spilled chemicals, opened drawers, ripped up files, and damaged machinery all over.

"Jeez-this-looks-kind-of-like-Duck's-room!" Rev exclaimed, dashing around to look closely at some of the damage.

"What do you think they were looking for?" I asked, bending down and picking up the remains of a file. It was on animal DNA, but I couldn't understand it past that.

"Whatever it was, I don't think they found it," Tech replied. I looked at him quizzically. "They would've stopped looking when they did find it; Velvet's not the trash-everything-and-leave type."

"Should-we-tell-the-others-and-keep-looking?" Rev asked, dashing back next to us.

Tech nodded and spoke into his communicator. "Hey, guys; the 19th floor is all ripped up, but there's no one here anymore."

"Any idea what she's after?" Ace asked.

"Nope."

"Alright. Keep lookin', and be careful."

"Got it," Tech replied. "Let's keep moving."

We walked down to the 18th floor, and it was in the same state. It wasn't one huge room like the 19th floor, though; the staircase we used took us down into a large room filled up with desks and cubicles. It too was ripped up, but not as badly as the previous floor. There was a doorway at the other end of the room marked "Experimentation in Progress: Enter At Your Own Risk."

"What do you guys want to bet that whatever she's after is in there?" I asked sarcastically.

We silently crept through the door, apprehensive of what we would find. We relaxed when we saw no one, but were confused when we realized that we had just stepped into a hallway, and not a lab room like we expected. There were multiple doors labeled "Lab 1," "Lab 2," and so on.

"There are too many rooms here..." Tech observed. "We'll have to split up to get them all."

"Be-careful-and-call-if-you-find-anything," Rev said, zipping off to the far end of the room.

"Same to you," I shouted after him. I walked towards the middle of the room, and I heard Tech enter the first room behind me. I stopped when I got to the room labeled "Lab 20" and opened the door. Inside was a medical table, medical equipment, and a few computers, but that was it. The room was also ripped apart, but there wasn't anywhere to hide, and that meant that there was no reason for me to look around anymore.

I moved on to the next room, and was surprised to find animal cages filled with anything from hamsters to iguanas. Files were thrown everywhere, and the one desk that was in the room was upturned. The animals were alright, and there was nothing there that I was looking for, so I stepped out and moved onto the next room.

It was like that for the first 6 rooms. Tech and Rev didn't seem to find anything, so I just kept moving. I entered another room, expecting more random equipment, but instead I saw what looked like a break room. There were a few couches, tables and chairs, a TV, and even a makeshift kitchen. Why they decided to place a break room in the hall with a caution sticker confused me, but I was more interested in the fact that the room was still intact.

I stepped in to take a closer look, and immediately, the door slammed shut behind me. I turned around, and cried out in surprise to see what looked like a frying pan headed for me. I ducked just in time and jumped backward. Whoever it was had been hiding behind the open door when I walked in, and had waited until I was inside to sneak attack me.

The person took another swing at me with the pan, even though I was a few feet away, and that was when I remembered that I had night vision, so I could see while others couldn't. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to look at who was trying to kill me with kitchenware, because I was grabbed from behind by two different people. I phased through their grip, and ended up behind them. They stumbled, and fell to the ground. I was now able to get a look at the three, and I was surprised to see that they were all scientists. The two who grabbed me were older men, and the one with the frying pan was a young woman.

I was about to say something to them, when Tech and Rev burst through the door.

"Duck!" I yelled to them as the woman swung again. She missed Rev by a mile, but there was a metallic clang as she hit Tech in the back of the head.

"OW!" he yelled, stumbling to the ground. I walked over and grabbed the pan as she was about to take another swing with it. The two men got up off the floor, and I knew I had to do something before someone else got hurt.

"Turn off the night vision, guys," I ordered, turning off my own night vision and sending electricity into my hand. It lit up, and illuminated the entire room like a flashlight.

"You're the Loonatics!" the woman exclaimed, lowering the frying pan and getting a good look at us.

"Well-yeah-of-course-we-are-who-else-would-we-be?" Rev asked.

"With your night vision, your eyes glowed red. You looked like that flying lady's minions," one of the men said with a heavy Russian accent. "Our apologies for the confusion. Are you all alright?"

Rev and I both looked at Tech. "I'm fine," he reassured. "What about you, Sive?"

"Yeah-we-heard-you-yell-and-we-came-running," Rev explained.

"I'm fine," I reassured. "I just wasn't ready to be attacked by Mrs. Frying Pan over there."

"Neither was I," Tech mumbled, getting up and rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh- Sorry!" the woman with the pan exclaimed. "It's just that the power was cut, and then that lady came and threatened us, and I grabbed the first thing I could find when she left, and then you walked in, and... Sorry!"

"She threatened you?" I asked.

"Yeah. She was looking for something, and she threatened to kill us if we did not tell her where it is," the Russian man explained.

"What's she after?" Tech asked urgently.

"A shipment came today containing a very important, potentially dangerous machine," the other man replied in a German accent.

"You don't mean the bio-converter, do you?" Tech asked worriedly.

"That is exactly what I mean."

"Oh, no..."

"What's-a-bio-converter?" Rev asked. He usually knew what Tech was talking about, so I was surprised that he didn't know what the converter was.

"It allows you to put in the DNA of something, and with it, it can affect something else. For example, if you put in the DNA of a zebra, then use it on a mouse, then it could come out with stripes. If you put in the DNA of a lion and use it on a common house cat, it could come out and have the attack-anything-that-moves instinct of a lion. All-in-all, not a good thing for Velvet to have," he explained. "It's essentially a remake of Otto's DNA Scrambler, only more controlled with what comes out of it."

"And now she knows exactly where to find it," I stated grimly.

"Not exactly," the woman began. Tech, Rev and I looked at her with confused expressions. "We told her it was one floor below us. In reality, the box it came in is there, but not the converter itself."

"Then-where-is-it?" Rev asked.

"Three floors down from here. It's all offices there, but when it came, we took it down there to inspect it. We, uh, forgot to take it back..." the woman explained shamefully.

"Personally, I'm very glad you did," I stated matter-of-factly. "We'd better get down there and get that converter before Velvet."

Tech and Rev nodded in agreement. I killed the light, we turned on our night vision again, and ran out. We told the scientists to stay there and wait until help arrives. I called the others over the communicators on the way.

"Guys, we know what she's after!"

"What is it?" Ace asked.

"Something called a bio-converter. I don't have time to explain details, but we know it's something Velvet shouldn't get and that it's on the 15th floor."

"We're on our way," Lexi replied. "What does it look like?"

I looked at Tech for help. He just shrugged and said into his communicator, "I'm not sure what it looks like; photos have never been released."

"Den we'll just have ta look for anythin' out of place," Ace stated.

We got there first, and unlike previous floors, the 15th was untouched. It was all offices, kitchen areas, and such; not a science project in sight.

"They probably left it in plain sight," Tech stated, "so we don't have to go looking in every corner of the room."

Rev zipped off to look around, and Tech and I moved slower through the rooms, looking around for anything that seemed out of place. After going through the entire floor multiple times, even after the others showed up to look, we didn't find it. We all met up in a kitchen after the 6th search.

"I think those scientists were lying," Duck stated, sitting in a chair. "There's nothing here but papers and pens!"

"It's got to be here somewhere," Lexi said. "Velvet's still looking around on the 17th floor, so she couldn't have done anything with it. Where else could it be?"

"Maybe somebody found it and put it back in it's box?" I asked.

"Ga habbu jebbi nowhere," Slam grumbled.

"I-wish-we-knew-what-it-looked-like-then-we-wouldn't-be-having-this-probem!" Rev said.

"If it's not here, though, then where is it?" I asked. I noticed Tech standing a ways off from the rest of us, staring intently at a coffee maker. "Uhh... Tech? What are you doing?"

The others turned around and gave him confused looks. "...I think this is it," he said after a moment.

"Tech-I-hate-to-break-it-to-you-but-that's-a-coffee-maker," Rev stated matter-of-factly.

"Since when do coffee makers have a biohazard warning label on them?" he asked smartly, turning the machine around and showing it to us.

"Thanks for finding that for me!" an echoing voice said from behind us. We all turned around and saw Velvet with a few dozen of her minions, or 'shadow boys' as she apparently called them, behind us. "But we'll be taking that now."

"Where did you come from?" Lexi asked in disbelief.

"We flipped the entire 17th floor upside down, but didn't find what we were looking for," she explained. "Then one of my shadow boys spotted two of you and followed you here. I just sat back and watched as you did the work for me. Now that you've found the converter, I'll be taking it!"

"Rev, grab it and run!" Ace ordered. Rev didn't hesitate, and was gone with the converter in a flash.

"After him!" Velvet ordered. Six of her minions peeled off from the group and followed Rev, though they had no hope of catching him. The rest of her minions ran forward and attacked the rest of us.

Ace pulled out his sword and started a blade-on-blade fight with three minions at once, who were using their blade-like arms as weapons. Duck threw egg after egg, and teleported whenever he felt the minions were getting too close for comfort. Tech brought some sort of laser gun type weapon with him, and was shooting anything that got close enough with great accuracy. Slam spun around in every direction like a pinball, taking out anything in his path. Lexi and I ran towards each other and met in front of a large group of the minions.

We didn't even have to say a word to each other as I formed an orb of electricity and launched it towards the middle of the group, and Lexi fired a brain blast at it. It exploded in a flash of light that made Velvet cry out in pain, a loud thunder crack that made Lexi cringe, and it electrocuted all of the minions in that group in the process. That was a combo move that Lexi and I did a lot; we thought of it from the fight with the Martian from when we met.

The light was enough to annoy Velvet, but not the rest of us, even with night vision. That was when Velvet realized that we were winning by a long shot; more than half of her shadow boys were unconscious on the floor, and the number was growing by the second. She flew overhead and joined in on the fight from there by shooting dark colored blasts from her robotic arm. Everyone ducked for cover under desks and tables. Almost all of her minions had been taken care of by then, so they weren't a problem; Velvet had good aim, though, so none of us could move without getting hit.

I saw two different laser blasts come from behind a desk, and I figured at Ace and Tech were hiding there. They aimed for Velvet, but she saw it coming and flew out of the way. Lexi tried a brain blast, but also missed. I lobbed an electricity orb at her, but that also missed. Unfortunately, it kept going and hit one of the hanging lights. It was enough to temporarily turn on all of the lights in the room, causing everyone to cover their eyes and Velvet to scream again. Then, all of the lights flickered off again, and the light I hit exploded.

"Let's not do _that_ again..." I muttered as my vision cleared.

"Actually..." Tech began through the communicator as Velvet restarted shooting at anything that moved. "Try that again."

"Suit yourself," I replied, looking for another light that I could hit from where I was. "Cover your eyes," I ordered as I found one and threw an orb at it. It had the same effect as last time, only Velvet seemed more annoyed than before by it. That was when I realized what Tech had in mind, and so did everyone else.

"Hey, Sive? Think you can power da lights long enough ta keep Velvet busy so we can end dis fight?" Ace asked through the communicator.

"That depends on if there's another way I can directly access the lights, other than through the lights themselves," I explained. "They're too high up for me to reach, and with all the equipment, I can't power the whole building. This place is too new for a fuse box..."

I looked around, trying to figure out a way I could power the lights, and I noticed that they were all hanging from identical wires. Those wires ran across the ceiling, and reconnected into one thick wire before running down the wall... And into one outlet.

_Bingo._

Unfortunately, Velvet was between the outlet and I, and that was the only thing I could see that was directly connected to the lights. There were other outlets, but that one was the only one that led to the lights, and trying to do it any other way would involve powering the whole building.

"If I can get past Velvet and to that outlet over there," I began, "then I can power the lights."

"We'll cover you," Ace reassured. That was my cue to go.

I darted from the desk Lexi and I were behind to another one that was slightly closer to the outlet, narrowly missing being hit by a blast from Velvet. I waited until I was clear to move again.

"Hey, Velvet!" I heard Duck yell. I peered over the desk and saw him standing up, waving his arms. Velvet turned her attention to him, and I darted behind an overturned table as she fired at him. He teleported away just in time.

Lexi stood up and yelled, "Over here!" in a taunting way. Velvet aimed at her, but Lexi dodged behind another desk before she was hit. It gave me the opportunity to sneak closer, but I couldn't risk moving again until they drew Velvet away from where she was.

Ace realized it, and sprang out from behind the table he was hiding behind, and launched a laser blast at her. She ducked under her cloak, which completely protected her from the blast, and returned fire. Ace, however, didn't duck for cover again, and instead took out his sword and countered Velvet's blasts with it. This continued for a short while, and in the process, Velvet did move forward a bit, so I was able to move closer to the outlet. I was able to get about twenty feet away, but it would have been too risky to move again, so I waited. There was a desk right in front of the outlet, so I'd be covered when I got there, but there was nothing in-between, so getting there was the problem.

The others were trying to get Velvet to move forward again, but it wasn't working. Not even a full-on attack from everyone could get her to move. I had to go for it; there was no other choice. I was right next to Velvet, so when I moved, she would notice immediately. I peered around the edge of the desk and saw Duck from where I was. He looked around and saw me, and I mouthed the words "cover me." He nodded, and as soon as he darted out in front of Velvet, I shot out from behind my desk like a rocket.

I made it just over five feet before hearing Duck cry out, but I was too far away to go back by then, so I had to keep going. I heard Lexi yell, "Sive, look out!" from behind me, and before I really knew what was happening, someone ran into me and pushed me out of the way of a blast from Velvet. The impact winded me, but I was pulled out of the way and behind another desk as Velvet fired again.

I looked and saw Tech next to me, holding his now bleeding shoulder. Before I could say anything to him, he said urgently, "Sive, the outlet!"

I looked where he was looking and saw the outlet right in front of us. I didn't say a word as I put my hand on it and shot a jolt of electricity through my arm. The lights flickered to life, making everyone turn off their night vision, and Velvet scream out in pain again. This time, though, they didn't turn off again after a few seconds.

"Get her!" Lexi yelled, firing a brain blast at Velvet. I saw Ace fire a laser blast at her, too, and Duck threw multiple eggs. Slam somehow got a hold of Tech's gun, and was firing at Velvet with it. Velvet covered herself with her cloak, but it wasn't enough, so she shot out one large, black blast from her arm. It covered the area she was standing in in darkness for a moment, and when it cleared, she was gone.

**A/N: Yeah, I know there's a lot of stuff hanging, but if I continued, then it would have been **_**so freaking long!**_** And it's just the first chapter! DX Well, there will be some important stuff either in the next chapter, or the one after it. R&R! …Please?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Something I forgot to say in my last A/N: This is a sequel to my other story, And Then There Were Seven. That just wouldn't fit in the summary. If you haven't read that yet, you really should. Here's something else that I really should, but hardly ever do: Review responses!**

PurpleGirly: Thanks! And to answer your question; yes, Ace and Lexi are still together in this fic. This particular fic has a lot of relationship stuff in it, actually... You'll see what I mean in... Actually, this chapter.

Luna246: Thanks so much! And I think I know what you're thinking, and if you really are thinking what I'm thinking that you're thinking, then you're right. XD Read this chapter, and you'll pretty much get it.

**So, I got this up a few days earlier than expected, which is good. I have finals all this week, so I'll be super busy, and probably won't have time to work on anything until after tomorrow. And after that… Well, my school has spring break a month earlier than everyone else, so I have next week off! …But, I will most likely spend the first four or so days in Michigan. My uncle has a cabin up there, and unfortunately, there's no wifi, so I can't post anything until I get back (unless I can convince someone to take me to the library… XD Or if I can convince my parents to bring the laptop and wifi card…) Anyways, I probably won't have anything until sometime next week, and I'm not happy about it.**

**A quick note on everything in this chapter: The first part is mostly fluffy stuff (and I thought that I would never do fluff… Hmmm…) Yeah, you'll learn what a sub-conflict of this story is there. And in the second part, the future people are introduced! (Well, most of them, anyway.) Can you guess who they are? XD**

_April 21, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

We had finally gotten back from AcmeTech, and I was exhausted. So was everybody else; most of them were asleep, and it was only Duck, Tech and I who were still awake. Duck had been clipped by a blast from Velvet, which was why I heard him yell. He was alright, but he had gotten a mild concussion, so he wasn't allowed to sleep for the time being. He was still watching TV last time I saw him.

Tech, on the other hand, was probably still in the lab. We had been asked to guard the bio-converter after the attempted theft, but only until it was moved to a safer place. Tech had taken it into the lab the second he got it, and I hadn't seen him since. I was heading there to look for him.

When I got there, I found Tech working a computer, with the converter on a table behind him. His shoulder was all bandaged up, and I wondered why it still hadn't healed yet.

"Hey," I said, walking up to him. He turned around and smiled when he saw me.

"Hey," he replied.

"You alright?" I asked, gesturing towards his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about it," he said, turning back to the computer. "I always take a while to heal from whatever that dark energy Velvet uses is. I'm not sure why, but I heal at a much slower rate than normal; so long as I'm not fatally wounded or anything, I'll be fine. I think it has something to do with the fact that I was forcibly ripped away from her mind control the first time we met… Anyways, this'll be gone by morning."

"If you say so." I looked at the screen, and it showed a map of the city with many dots all around. "What's that?"

"A map of where those fluxes I was talking about showed up," he explained. "There were two more while we were gone. They always come in twos, and they're getting closer and closer to HQ. They're starting to worry me."

"Have you figured out what they are, yet?"

"Nope. If I don't catch one right as it happens, then I can't scan it, and I always seem to be away from the computer at just the right time. I have my suspicions, and I've contacted the right people about them, but until I figure out exactly what they are, there's nothing I can do."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"I don't think so, but thanks for asking." There was a brief silence. "...So, what brings you down here at this time of night? Aren't _you_ the one usually telling _me_ to get to sleep?"

"Honestly? I was looking for you." He turned back to look at me. "I didn't get a chance to thank you back there... You know, for saving me. I probably wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you."

"Oh, uh..." That took him by surprise. "Well, it's not like I was just going to let you get killed back there. And besides; you're alright, and I'll be alright, so no harm done."

"Yeah, but by the sound of how your healing powers work with Velvet's, you could've gotten killed!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't."

"But-"

"Sive, the fact that you're alright is all that matters to me right now, and I don't regret what I did, so drop it," he gently ordered. Then he realized what he just said, he had a look on his face that said, 'Did I really just say that?'

Just then, Duck walked in and asked, "Tech, are you sure I can't sleep at _all_ tonight?" in a whiny tone.

Tech wiped his puzzled look off of his face and smartly replied, "Not if you don't want to possibly slip into a coma."

Knowing Tech and Duck as well as I did, I knew that argument was going to last a while. Before it got to a point that it would have been awkward to leave, I said goodnight to them both and walked back to my room. I thought about the conversation I just had on the way there.

My mind was sent into multiple directions. The practical part of me thought that Tech was being reckless and relying on his regeneration powers too much; the social part thought that he was being a good team mate.

But one, tiny part of me wondered if he meant what he said, and what he meant by it.

**xoxoxoxox**

_April 23, 2939_

I was sitting in an armchair, doing some work on my tablet computer, when I heard something that I heard every morning around that time.

"_MEI_! _DONNY_!" a roadrunner anthro yelled, zipping into the room at light speed. "Wolfe-have-you-seen-them-they-took-my-goggles-again-and-I-can't-finish-what-I'm-working-on-without-them," she asked me. That was Claire. She spoke abnormally fast all of the time, even for a roadrunner (it ran in her family.) And yet, she was odd in many ways.

She was three different colors to start; yellow beak, tail, and crest; predominantly blue feathers; orange spots here and there, and a boy-cut hairstyle (colored bright orange.) She was also the first one of us ever to not wear a uniform; she instead wore an all white outfit consisting of a tank-top, jeans, boots, a beanie hat, fingerless gloves, and her signature goggles, which were usually propped on her head, but were now gone. She wore them whenever she was welding something, and always insisted that she couldn't work without them. She was our team techie, resident doctor, and a usual target for the twins' pranks. She could also run at insane speeds, which had also run in her family for more than 150 years, not to mention being able to make three duplicates of herself. The twins usually picked her as a target for their pranks.

"Haven't seen 'em," I replied, turning back to my work. Claire took off in another direction, and I waited a moment before saying, "All-clear, guys."

Two potted plants in a corner of the room sprang up and morphed into two rabbit anthros before landing on their feet. They were both skinny and on the shorter side, with blue fur and shaggy, shoulder-length, brown hair. They were both wearing the signature uniform, black with a colored, upside-down triangle (blue, in their case,) and they had the same build, even the same voice. It was impossible to tell them apart, even though one was a boy, Donald (but we only called him that to make fun of him, so we almost always called him Donny,) and the other a girl, Mei. Mei was built like a gymnast, and Donny like a swimmer, and Mei had a voice lower than normal while Donny's was higher. The fact that they were both shape shifters made it even harder to tell them apart. Mei and Donny were teenagers, and the resident pranksters. They used our inability to tell them apart against us frequently, but they hardly ever chose wisely when picking a target to prank. They knew enough not to mess with _me_, but even so, it was a miracle they were still alive. One of them was holding a pair of white goggles.

"Thanks, Wolfe! We _never_ would have lived if it wasn't for you!" one of them exclaimed.

"Claire's gonna _kill_ us when she finds us! Where should we hide these?" the other asked slyly, playing with the goggles.

"She's coming back," a duck anthro said matter-of-factly, walking into the room, but staring off to the left. That was Laela.

Laela was... Different. Not Claire different, but different. She always spoke in a misty, almost monotone voice, and when she looked at you, it looked as if she was looking through you. She was also the first to make a personal change to the uniform (even though she said that she couldn't see real color, so I didn't know why.) She had kept the triangle (hers was yellow,) but instead of the rest of the uniform being black, she made it white. Claire and Mei said it looked batter on her than the black version, but I didn't notice a difference.

She was a pure white duck with a yellow beak and wavy blonde hair. Her eyes made her look as if she was blind, and legally, she was. Her power let her see what she called the "aura" of objects and people, which was essentially a colored outline of everything, and she could see through other auras as well. It was a bit confusing, but she made a perfect lookout, so we didn't complain. She could also create small orbs that exploded into random substances including anything from hot magma to grape juice.

"AH-_HA_!" Claire yelled as she ran into the room. She had come back so fast, no one even had time to react to Leala's statement.

"Run!" the twin with the goggles yelled. He/she morphed into Claire, and ran away, the real Claire hot on his/her heels (I still didn't know which twin it was.) They were just lucky they were able to use the powers of whoever they turned into, otherwise they would've been killed a long time ago.

That was when I realized that only one twin ran. I looked around, but Laela was the only one there. Then, a chameleon appeared on the floor where the twins were standing. It morphed into the other twin, who had a smug look on his/her face.

"Finally figured out how that chameleon thing works, huh?" I asked. The twins had been trying to figure out how to blend when they took the form of a chameleon for months, but that was the first time I saw one of them do it correctly.

"Yup! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find somewhere to hide!" the twin said, walking towards the door opposite the one Claire had just run through.

"Stop messing with Claire, Donny; it's going to get you killed!" I yelled after the twin, guessing it was Donny.

"I'm _Mei_!" she yelled behind her as she left, totally ignoring my comment. A lavender coyote anthro in a black uniform with a purple triangle walked through the door right after Mei. He was white around the face, with cheery-looking, deep blue eyes.

"That time already?" he asked. "They usually don't start bugging anyone until _noon_, at least."

"That's because they don't usually wake up until noon," I replied, totally serious.

The coyote went into the kitchen and began making himself breakfast. He sat on the countertop, and did absolutely nothing as odds and ends from the cabinets began flying around the room until everything was back in it's place, and he had a bowl of cereal, a couple pieces of toast, and a glass of orange juice sitting on the counter across from him. He started walking back into the living room, and his breakfast floated after him and lightly landed on the coffee table.

That was Psycho for you; laziest guy I've ever met. He wasn't really named Psycho, but he preferred that to his real name; Leonard. We called him that both for his psychic abilities, and because he used to have anger issues. He was over it by then, but we still poked fun at him for it. He used his powers for almost everything, and hardly ever had to lift a finger.

"It's impossible to get any sleep around here!" a fox shouted in the general direction of the noise erupting from where Donny and Claire ran to as she walked into the room. She approached Psycho from behind and stole a piece of his toast.

"Hey! Get your own toast!" he yelled, pulling his plate away. She just laughed and sat down next to him.

That was Nega. That wasn't even close to her real name, but she stopped going by it a while ago. She was in a good mood that morning; she was usually pretty cold, even with us. There was an accident a long time ago, back when we were in high school, and it changed her in multiple ways. She used to be one of the cheeriest people I knew, but after the accident, she avoided everyone. It mainly had to do with the looks she got afterward.

Before the accident, she looked like a normal fox anthro; pointy ears, long muzzle, bushy tail, orange fur, white tail tip, green eyes, and short, brunette hair. Afterward, her fur had turned black, but most of it faded to dark purple (her tail tip was still black.) Her hair turned black, too, but that wasn't the worst part. Her eyes changed drastically; the whites of her eyes turned black, and her irises turned red. It was enough to make people afraid of her.

Whatever the accident was, it caused her to gain powers, too. She was able to use what she called 'shadow energy,' which was a black energy that she could create and potentially use like a beam, or create powerful orbs with, and such. She could also control time, but it wasn't particularly powerful. She essentially hit the rewind button when she used it, and only she was aware of it's effects. She said that she had to focus on what she needed to do with the power to use it, and the more desperate the situation, the more powerful it was. She had never tried moving forward through time, only back, but so far, she had only been able to slow it down slightly. She and I were the only ones who got our powers our own way; the others had it in their genes.

I turned back to my screen, but it had gone into sleep mode, so I just saw a reflection of myself staring back at me. I was just a plain, silver colored wolf anthro with blue eyes, wearing a black uniform with a gray triangle. I was supposed to be the leader of the team, but I always felt as if I wasn't doing a good enough job, or that I could do way better. It probably had to do with the fact that we had lost at least two members recently, even though we could barely remember who they were.

The screen lit up on it's own and showed a map of the city, with a purple dot flashing a ways away from our location. It stopped a moment later.

"Guys, we've got trouble," I announced, standing up. Psycho and Nega stood up, too, and Laela walked over to us. I raised my wrist up to my arm and pushed a button on the gauntlet that activated my communicator. "Guys, get up here, _now_! And Claire, could you find Buzz on your way up?"

"Sure-thing-be-there-in-a-flash!" she replied.

It only took a minute for Mei and Donny to appear (Donny looked very beat up,) and Claire zipped in a moment later (with her goggles perched on her head,) closely followed by a very large Tasmanian devil.

That was Buzz. He was the team muscle man, and was probably four times my size. He was colored yellow and black, and wore the standard uniform with a yellow triangle. He could spin around in a huge tornado, like his dad, and his dad's dad, and so-on. Like Claire, a lot was passed down through his family. He, however, could speak English enough that we could understand him, which was a first for his family.

"What's going on?" he grunted.

"A few blocks from here, a time rift appeared, and then disappeared. You all know what that means," I explained.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Psycho exclaimed.

The others all grabbed a jetpack, which was a remake of the original designs by Tech E. Coyote, and flew out. Claire based a lot of her stuff off of his designs, but the jetpacks were what made us realize that she was a technological genius. Psycho's family had been the resident geniuses for generations, but then they found out that Psycho wasn't genius material (after he flunked out of three different high schools,) which is why we were happy to figure out that Claire was super smart. Unlike everyone else in her family, she couldn't fly, and she made an almost-functioning jetpack when she was only 12 years old. She got it working after she saw the original plans, re-did some things (such as making them much smaller and lighter than before,) and made one for everyone on the team, except for me.

I was able to manipulate wind, so I could create a current around myself so that I could fly. I could also solidify it enough to make it act like multiple blades attacking a person, which was handy. I also sword fought a lot, and I was pretty good in hand-to-hand combat, (though I could never beat Nega.) That hardly ever helped much in fights against our regular enemy, though.

I could only hope that this incident would end better than previous experiences as we arrived.

**A/N: So, what do you think? The next chapter will have another action scene in it, and an important event! I might be able to get two chapters up when I get back (if I can't post one later this week,) but might is the key word. No promises. After that, you can probably expect a chapter every other day (I don't like doing much, and with my iPod Touch, I can type while doing absolutely nothing on the couch, which is my favorite pastime.)**

**R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: WOW! I didn't think I would get this finished. But, I did. This is both a good thing and a bad thing… XD You'll see what I mean. Until then, read on!**

_April 23, 2775_  
**  
Sive's POV**

We hadn't heard from Velvet again since her attempted theft, and the converter had been moved earlier that day, so there was no reason for her to turn up again. The government was apparently the one who had asked for it to be made for 'official reasons,' so it was moved with the help of a heavily armed convoy, and Ace, Tech, and Rev went along in case Velvet showed up. They only went as far as the train that would take it into another, undisclosed location, but when Velvet didn't even try anything, everyone was surprised. The easiest time to take it would have been at that time, and the authorities thought she had given up. We, however, suspected that something bigger was going on. It wasn't until a while later that we realized how right we were.

It had been a quiet day, and for lack of anything else to do, we were watching TV. Duck was dozing in a chair, Tech had his eyes on the screen, but was obviously thinking about something else, Slam was staring intently at the screen, and Ace, Lexi, Rev and I were on the couch. Lexi was leaning on Ace's shoulder, and he had one of his arms around hers. They made such a cute couple.

It was completely silent in the room, other than the sound coming from the TV, until Lexi perked up and asked, "Did you guys hear that?"

"Lexi, hardly anyone ever hears the things you do," Duck mumbled.

Lexi ignored him and focused on her hearing, which sent pink rings floating up her ears. "No, I definitely hear something. Wait... Now it's gone. Okay, _that_ was weird."

"What did you hear?" I asked.

"I'm not sure... It almost sounded like... I have no idea."

"Somethin' we should be worried about?" Ace asked. He knew enough to know that anything that worried Lexi like that was probably something the rest of us should worry about, too.

"I'm not sure... No, probably not."

Then, my phone went off. It was on vibrate, so Lexi and I were the only ones who reacted to it. Even so, I was expecting the call.

"Excuse me for a minute," I said, getting up and walking to my room. I answered the call on the way.

"Hey, Aaron. So, how was Europe?" I asked as I closed my door behind me.

"Uneventful," he replied matter-of-factly. He didn't sound too happy, either.

"So you didn't find him, then?"

"Nope."

"Damn..." He had gone to Europe for both business and a search mission. He had to go there to follow up on a big project for MCI, and he also got a tip on Dad's location that led him to France. Unfortunately, it sounded like it was a bad tip, and he didn't find him.

When Dad went under the radar eight months ago, he left absolutely no trace. All of his known hideouts were checked, but nothing was found. I was hoping Aaron would find something in France, but he didn't, and we were out of leads again.

"So, did I miss anything while I was gone?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"One of the super villains came out of hiding a few days ago; Black Velvet. She tried stealing something from AcmeTech, _tried_ being the key word."

"She didn't happen to try taking the infamous bio-converter, did she?"

"_You_, of course, would know about that. But it's in a secure place now, so there's no problem."

"That's good." I heard someone say something to him in the background. "Hey, Sive, sorry about this, but I need to go."

"Alright. Call me later to tell me about France!"

"Got it. Talk to you soon."

"Bye." I hung up, and headed back to the living room. Nothing had changed since I left... Except for the shady figure standing behind Duck.

It looked like a silhouette of a man, except based on the lighting in the room, I should have been able to see him. It was all black, with no features whatsoever. It's arms were what caught my eye, though; they were essentially handless spikes, and it was aiming to skewer the now sleeping Duck with one of them.

Based on where everyone else was sitting, I was the only one who could see it, which meant that I would have to stop it. I wasn't going to be able to fire off a stream of electricity because of all the people in the room, but I figured it wouldn't be good to completely destroy the thing, whatever it was, so I threw a fairly small, unconcentrated orb at it. It hit the thing dead on, but much to my surprise, when it hit it, instead of sending it flying back into a wall like I expected, the thing contorted itself, suggesting it was in pain, and then disappeared.

The resounding thunder crack made everyone jump to their feet, including Duck (but he did more scrambling than jumping,) and they all looked around wildly. By then, though, the thing was gone, and there was no trace of it.

"Uh, Sive? What are you shooting at?" Lexi asked.

"But-! There was, this-! This, _thing_, standing behind Duck, and, I hit it, and..." I couldn't even form a complete sentence because of how confused I was.

"Sive-are-you-alright?" Rev asked worriedly.

I growled in annoyance and tried to think of an explanation. Thankfully, my explanation walked right through the door in the form of three more of the black silhouettes.

"_Those_," I said, pointing to them. Everyone turned around, and was shocked to see them. It didn't take long for them to snap out of it and start fighting back, though.

One of the things rushed Duck, who wildly started throwing eggs at it. The first one was a tar egg, and the second was a water egg, but the third one exploded. The thing disappeared, and Duck looked confused.

Ace and Lexi fired a laser and brain blast, respectively, at the other two, and they too disappeared. By then, everyone was just as confused as I was.

"Dematerialization. Nice," Tech commented after they had all disappeared.

"And that means...?" Duck began.

"The ability to disappear without a trace. Something tells me that it wasn't voluntary that they did it, though," he stated grimly. "I think that if we hit them once hard enough, then they'll disappear."

"Well, that's good," I stated, "because there's more of them!"

About eight more ran into the room, but they were easily dispatched by Slam, who swatted them all like flies. They disappeared once they hit the wall.

"We need ta figure out where dese things are comin' from!" Ace said. "Follow me; I've got an idea!"

He ran out into the hall that the things walked out of, but there were three different ways to go; two staircases leading up and down, and another room. We stopped and waited there, but it wasn't long before four more of the black things came running down the stairs and attacked us. Ace slashed two of them with his sword, Lexi hit another with a brain blast, and Rev kicked the last one hard to get rid of it. Ace led us up the stairs the way they came, and it didn't take very long for more of the black things to find and attack us. We moved forward based on where they came from, and we eventually ended up outside the door to the roof.

"They're comin' from da roof, den!" Ace speculated. "We don't know how many of them are out dere, but even if dere's dozens of dem, we could probably still handle it. Even so, be on your guard."

We all nodded in response. Ace walked up to the door, turned the knob, and opened it a crack to peek outside.

"What da...?" Ace mumbled. He opened the door all the way, and the rest of us realized why he was so confused.

There was nobody there.

The roof was a fairly large, flat space, with a plain concrete floor, and a railing around the edge to keep anyone from falling off, not that anyone ever went up there. As far as we could see, we were the only ones there.

"Maybe-that-last-group-that-we-got-rid-of-was-the-last-of-them-I-mean-that-did-make-it-about-thirty-of-those-things-that-we-got-rid-of-and-there-can-only-be-so-many-of-them," Rev commented.

"Thought it would be _that_ easy?" a high pitched, nasal, and fairly annoying sounding female voice called out from somewhere behind us. We all turned around, but there was no one there. "The shadow walkers were just supposed to lure you here so I could finish you off!"

"This is creepy..." Duck began, slowly backing away from the location of the voice.

"Who's there?" Lexi called out.

"My name is none of your business!" the voice called. Then, on top of the doorway we had just come through, a girl appeared. She was probably around my age, and built like a supermodel. That wasn't what caught my attention, though; it was her outfit.

She was wearing a bright yellow tank top with a neon blue lightning bolt, and a matching mini-skirt. She was also wearing bright yellow, knee-high boots, and her hair was neon blue as well. She looked like a preppy, tie-dyed highlighter. She also had a metal gauntlet around her left wrist, which was just plain silver.

"And yet, since you're not going to be around much longer, I guess I can tell you," she said after thinking it over. "I'm Ceci, and I was sent here to destroy you!"

"_That's_ not something we get often..." I muttered sarcastically.

"Who sent ya?" Ace asked, drawing his sword.

"That would be my partner, Ce- _Hey_! You almost made me say something I wasn't supposed to!" she screeched. "I should get rid of you before everything starts unraveling..."

"And how to you plan on doing that?" Duck asked, completely ignoring the comment about 'unraveling,' whatever that meant. "There's one of you, and seven of us!"

"Oh, but I'm not alone!" Just then, a bunch more of the black things appeared out of the shadows and surrounded us. We were probably outnumbered seven to one. "My partner made me a bunch of shadow walkers to use before I left! While you're busy dealing with them, I'll get my job done!"

The things, or 'shadow walkers' as Ceci called them, attacked, and we had no choice but to ignore Ceci for the time being and defend ourselves. Three of them rushed me at once, and I shot a stream of energy at them. It split into four separate streams to hit its targets; three of them hit the ones rushing for me, and the other one branched sideways and hit one that Rev was dealing with. I turned around just in time to see Ceci take off into the air.

_Oh great,_ I thought. _She can fly.  
_  
Two more attacked me from behind, but I just let them phase through me. I charged up my hand, like I did to create light, and poked them both when they were in front of me. It took a lot of charge to make light, so it essentially turned my hand into a super-taser; it was more than enough to make the shadow walkers disappear.

I had another moment to look around, and I saw Lexi firing brain blasts at Ceci while Ace was covering her. Ceci, however, was too fast for her, and none of the blasts hit.

Ceci looked annoyed, and after one blast that was particularly close, she stopped moving. She opened her mouth, and emitted a high-frequency sound at Ace and Lexi. It didn't affect the rest of us because we weren't directly in the path of the sound, but Ace and Lexi both cried out and covered their ears.

I formed an orb in my hand, and lobbed it at Ceci. It hit, and the noise stopped for a moment when she cried out in pain. Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to knock her out, and she changed her target and sent a sound blast at me. This one was either too high or low for me to hear, but Lexi flinched when she heard it. It wasn't aimed so much for me as the ground, though, and the section of concrete I was standing on buckled. I was standing on the part that shot upward, so I was sent flying near Ace and Lexi.

"There's got to be a better way to do this..." I muttered, getting back up on my feet.

"Guys, there's a problem," Tech stated running towards the rest of us. "Look."

He pointed towards the shadowed areas, and we saw that more of the shadow walkers were walking out of them.

"So dat means dat dere's no endin' dis!" Ace stated. "Dey just keep comin'!"

"If we could just get rid of Ceci..." Lexi said wistfully.

"Hey, Sive? Think ya can make a distraction?" Ace asked. He usually went to Rev for distractions, but Rev was busy, and I was still good at distracting people. Rev did more of a traditional distraction; running back and forth, taunting his targets, constantly keeping their attention. I, rather, incessantly insulted my targets, and made enough sarcastic comments to drive anyone up a wall. It was usually enough to make me anyone's primary target.

"Sure thing. Just stand well away so she doesn't see whatever you're planning on doing."

"Right. Tech, you come with me. Lexi, cover us if need be. If not, den help Rev, Slam, and Duck," Ace ordered.

They all ran their separate ways; Ace and Tech ran to the side of the roof opposite from me, and Lexi ran towards the center. I knew what was going to happen, even though no one told me; Ace was going to wait until I had Ceci thoroughly distracted, and then Tech was going to watch his back for him when he fired at her.

"Hey, Ceci!" I yelled, getting her attention.

"Oh, yeah! You're the green one! ...Wait, there's two of you..." she stated, looking totally confused.

"Not the brightest crayon in the box, are you?" I asked sarcastically. "And yet, I can see how people could think otherwise based on that outfit."

"And what does that mean?" she asked, starting to get angry.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all... Except for the fact that you look like a highlighter."

That did exactly what I wanted it to. She started firing sound blasts at me again, but I was too fast for her, so she missed every time.

"Wow, your aim sucks!" I yelled to her over the noise. "Must be because that outfit is blinding you a bit. Bright yellows do that, you know."

She continued firing at me, only with more frequency and intensity. It was starting to get harder and harder to dodge her attacks, but lucky for me, Ace thought he had his chance, so he fired.

Ceci wasn't as distracted as he thought, so she saw him, but didn't have time to move. Instead, she stopped firing at me for a split second. I had taken a step forward in anticipation of the next blast, but faltered when it didn't come. This gave Ceci the chance she needed, and she fired a blast at just the right time. It was another one that I couldn't hear, but it made the ground buckle again behind me. I was sent flying again, only that time, I flew right into Ace.

Tech ran over and helped us up as Ceci yelled, "I'm getting sick of this! I am just going to end this now, and go home."

She fired off one more blast, and it hit a couple feet in front of Tech, Ace and I. It was another one that was inaudible, and it caused the ground to buckle again. We were all sent flying backward from it... Right over the edge of the building.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

The sound blasts that Ceci used really hurt my ears, and I couldn't concentrate on what was happening over it. Everything was fuzzy, and I lost track of everything around me.

"Lexi-look-out!" Rev yelled, pulling me out of the way just in time as a shadow walker that had sneaked up behind me was about to stab me. Rev turned back around and karate-style kicked it hard enough to make it disappear.

The sudden jerk had pulled me back into reality, and I looked around quickly when I remembered what Ace had asked me to do. I saw him, Tech, and Sive on one end of the roof, and Ceci above them. I realized what she was about to do, and frantically fired a brain blast at her to try and stop it, but I was too late.

She unleashed a sound blast at them, and my brain blast hit her a moment later which sent her flying backward, but the damage was done. The sound blast had had caused a portion of the roof to buckle, which sent Ace, Tech, and Sive over the edge and falling 150 floors to the ground.

"No!" I yelled, starting to run to where they fell.

"I'll-get-them!" Rev shouted as he took off towards that end of the roof. He tried flying to catch up to them and help them somehow, but a shadow walker materialized below him, grabbed his arm, and threw him back at us.

Duck and Slam had caught up to me, and we were all running to where Ace, Tech, and Sive were. The shadow walker threw Rev right at us, and Duck and I went flying back into Slam. He managed to catch all three of us, and as we all got to our feet again, the shadow walkers surrounded us.

"Rev, can you still get to them in time?" I asked desperately, my mind only on Ace, Tech, and Sive.

"I'm-not-sure-if-I-can-fly-right-now..." he responded with a pained expression. "That-thing-really-hurt-my arm-when-it-threw-me-and-well..."

"What?" I asked urgently. I knew I wouldn't like his answer, but I had to know.

"Well..." He was hesitant to say it. When he started speaking again, it was slow, deliberate, and had a hopeless tone to it. "Based on the laws of Physics and acceleration, there's nothing we can do for them now. They're gone."

"What...?" I breathed, unable to find my voice. As far as I knew, a huge part of my world had come crashing down. I had lost two of my best friends and my boyfriend all in under a minute. Slam and Duck had shocked looks on their faces, and I figured that I looked the same.

"Well, that takes care of three of them," Ceci stated, floating back above us. "Four to go. I'm done messing around, though, and I want to get home, so I'm going to finish this now."

She raised her left arm, the one with the gauntlet, and pressed a button on it. The upper half lit up, and then shot the light at us. It grew and got brighter, and before we even realized what happened, we were enveloped in a bright, white light. Some kind of portal opened up in it, and we were sucked in.

**A/N: *GASP* …Did I just kill everyone? 0.0 Can anybody say "cliffhanger?" XD Well, this is where that bad part I mentioned earlier comes in… Yeah, since I'm going up to Michigan, I can't post anything until I get back (we aren't bringing the laptop, and without that, I can't even post anything from the local library!) Seriously, there's no wifi or cell service up there! …Anyways, I'll be back on Wednesday, so I'll try to post up another chapter when I get back. Until then, R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'M BACK! I ALMOST DIED WITHOUT WIFI! Like, no joke, my life serves no purpose without it. Anyways, I had this finished on Saturday during the car ride (I also started it during the car ride,) but I wasn't able to post it until now because of my wifi-less-ness. Seriously, I can get a lot done given a six hour car ride and no DS.**

**Anyways, this chapter says what happened to everyone, and then gives more on my future people. Read on!**

_April 23, 2775_

**Tech's POV  
**  
When we went over the side of the building, I knew something had to be done fast. We would hit the ground in less than twenty seconds, so if anyone was going to do something, it would have to be right away.

I was closer to the ground, with Ace just above me, and Sive above him. I would survive the impact with my regeneration, but Sive and Ace wouldn't. That meant that in order to save them, either Ace or I would have to do something.

I thought fast, and had an idea. There was a metal pipe running down the length of the building, so I raised my arm and used my magnetism power on it. It surrounded me in a green glow, and the magnetic pull between the pipe and I kept me stationary in midair. I caught Ace as he went past me, and he was able to catch Sive when she passed him. The sudden jerks almost ripped my arms out of their sockets, and the added weight caused us to start going down again, but we now had a few minutes instead of a few seconds.

"Nice job, Tech!" Ace praised.

"We need to get back on the ground, or into the building," I stated quickly. "I can't hold this much longer."

"If you can get us closer to the wall, I can get us into the building," Sive said.

"I can do that. Hang on, and don't let go of each other," I ordered. I concentrated on my magnetism more than before, and I made it suddenly surge, then shut it off. The surge sent us up a few feet at an angle that sent us closer to the wall, but it wasn't enough to send us up far enough to let us get to it. We started falling again, but our angle of descent took us right into the wall.

Sive phased through first, followed by Ace, and then myself. We fell a few feet, and then had a hard impact on the floor, but it was preferable to the alternative impact with the ground.

"That almost ruined my whole day..." Sive muttered, getting back up on her feet.

"You guys alright?" I asked as I stood up. My arms were killing me, but I was more worried about them.

"Don't worry 'bout us," Ace said. "Right now, we need ta get back to da roof and help da others!"

He took off, and Sive and I followed. As we went up the stairs, I realized how close to death Ace and Sive had gotten; we had fallen almost 90 floors, which left about 60 floors and a 6 second fall between us and the ground.

By the time we reached the roof, we were all out of breath, but that didn't keep Ace from running clear out the door into what could have been a tough fight. Sive and I followed, and we were met with the same image as the last time we came on the roof.

No one was there.

"Where... Are dey?" Ace asked, still breathless.

"I have a feeling that we missed something important during the few minutes we were gone," Sive stated. I nodded in agreement.

Ace turned on his communicator and urgently said, "Lexi, Rev, Duck, Slam, can ya hear me?" Static. "Come on, guys, answer!" All he got in reply was more static.

"There's a security camera over there," I said, pointing towards the camera mounted near the entrance we had just used. "Let's go into the lab and review the footage; see what we missed."

We quickly made our way down to the lab without saying a word. We were all worried about the others, and we were anxious to see what had happened to them.

I sat down at a computer when we got there, and quickly made my way to the footage we wanted. I found it, rewound it, and put it up on a large, wall-mounted screen so Sive and Ace could see it, too. I played it, but when it didn't show anything of interest, I fast forwarded. I stopped when a bright, white light appeared on the middle of the roof.

"What is that?" Sive asked.

"Dat's about da time Lexi said she heard somethin' weird," Ace said. "Is dere any sound with dis?"

"I'm afraid not," I replied. "It's an older camera, and the sound recorder broke a while ago. I've been meaning to replace it, but it hasn't been as important as other things, and I hardly ever find time to do odd jobs like that, anyways."

We turned our attention back to the screen as the light faded, revealing Ceci and someone else we couldn't see.

"Dat must be Ceci's partner," Ace speculated. "Now if only we could see a face..."

Ceci's partner was wearing a black cloak with a hood, and had her back to the screen. We could see enough of her figure to tell it was a girl, but not much else. She was talking to Ceci, and at one point, she pointed at her, revealing a hand with black skin that we had only ever seen one time before.

"Black Velvet's working with Ceci?" Sive asked in disbelief.

"I don't think so," I said. "Based on the ratio of Ceci's actual height compared to her height in the video, when applied to her partner's height..."

"Can we get da simplified version, please?" Ace asked.

"Ceci's partner is too short to be Velvet," I stated. "Her figure's different, too."

"Then who's that?" Sive asked.

"I have no idea," I replied.

We started watching again as Ceci's partner waved her hand towards the shadows. It was hard to see, but we could make out the shadows solidifying into some kind of black goop that then turned into shadow walkers. Some of them walked towards Ceci and her partner, while others blended into the shadows again. Ceci's partner said a few more things before Ceci raised her arm, the one with the gauntlet that had caught my eye, and pushed a button on it. The top half of it lit up, and shot the light at the far end of the roof. It grew and got brighter until it stopped moving. Ceci's partner walked into it, and when it faded, she was gone.

I fast forwarded again, and we watched as Ceci sent out groups of shadow walkers down the stairs at quadruple speed. We appeared not long later, and I played it at regular speed after Ace, Sive, and I went flying off the roof.

Rev tried flying after us, but a shadow walker caught him and threw him into Lexi and Duck (and quite possibly broke Rev's arm in the process.) Slam caught all three of them, and Lexi said something to Rev. He hesitantly replied, and then everyone looked shocked and upset.  
_  
He probably did the math and told them we were dead_, I thought. Rev wasn't nearly as fast as I was when doing mental math, but he knew enough about the basic Laws of Physics to know that by that time, we should have been dead, whereas in reality, we were suspended in midair about 950 feet below.

Ceci flew over to them, and before any of them could do anything, she pushed the button on her gauntlet that shot the portal-opening light. When it faded, everyone was gone. Ceci looked pleased with herself, and shot another portal at the other end of the roof. She and all of the shadow walkers went into it, and then there was no one left on the roof for about a minute until Ace, Sive and I ran on-scene.

"Tech, what was dat portal-thing?" Ace asked.

"...I hate to say it, but I have no idea," I replied after a moment. I never liked not knowing what something was, especially if it was technology related.

Something beeped loudly on the computer, making Ace and Sive jump.

"What was that?" Sive asked.

"A beeper I set up to notify me whenever one of those fluxes shows up," I replied. "It's not really important right now, and... Wait a minute..." An idea hit me like a brick wall, and I didn't waste any time to figure out if I was right. I turned back to the computer and quickly began typing.

"Uhh, Tech? What'cha doin'?" Ace asked in a you're-acting-strange tone.

I didn't reply as I opened a map of the city covered in dots. Another one appeared on top of HQ.

"Does that mean that those flux-things happened here?" Sive asked incredulously.

"Yeah; three of them. And according to this, all three happened whenever one of those portals opened up," I replied, reading a data chart from another screen.

"Do ya know what dey are, yet?" Ace asked me anxiously.

"Sorry, no. I'm never at a computer when they happen, but even so, the scanner doesn't pick them up until after the fact based on these readings." I was really annoyed with myself; they were something I was worrying about, but I ignored them. If I didn't, we may not have had that problem.

"Then what do we do?" Sive asked. Ace thought for a moment (he usually decided those things,) then looked to me for help.

"Until I figure out what they are, there's nothing we can do," I replied. "The others will just have to manage on their own until I figure it out."

I just hoped that they could manage, wherever they were.

**xoxoxoxox  
**_  
April 23, 2939  
_**  
****Lexi's POV**

When we were surrounded by the light, I couldn't see anything at first. It was too bright, and all I could hear was this strange static sound that I heard earlier. Then, the sound stopped, and it was completely silent. It felt like I was being pulled in every direction at once, and I couldn't breathe. Just when I felt like I was about to suffocate and be ripped into tiny pieces, the pulling stopped, I could breathe again, and the light faded. I floated in midair for a second, then gravity started working again and I fell to the ground. I heard three more thuds behind me, and I figured it was Rev, Slam, and Duck.

I turned around just as the light faded. We all got to our feet and looked around. We were in an alley with two very tall buildings on either side, and a busy street down on one end.

"What just happened?" Duck asked.

"Well-it-looks-as-if-Ceci-opened-up-some-kind-of-portal-and-we-went-through-it," Rev stated.

"Thanks Captain Obvious! I meant where are we?"

"Oh-well-that-depends-on-what-kind-of-portal-it-was-it-could-have-been-dimensional-spacical-or-temporal-if-it-was-spacial-then-we-are-just-somewhere-else-in-our-dimension-and-time-if-it-was-dimensional-we're-in-an-alternate-dimension-but-that-technology-doesn't-exist-yet-if-it-was-temporal-then-we're-in-another-time-but-that-technology-doesn't-exist-yet-either-well-it-almost-does-thanks-to-Dr. Chroniker-but-not-quite," Rev explained.

"Let's hope it's spacia-whatever, then," Duck muttered.

"Well-there's-an-easy-way-to-check." We all looked at Rev quizzically. "If-it's-spacial-then-our-communicators-will-work-if-we're-in-another-dimension-or-another-time-a-long-way-away-from-ours-then-they-won't-even-get-a-signal."

"Nice thinking, Rev," I said, turning on my communicator.

A pre-recorded voice in the communicator said, "No signal. No signal," over and over again. I shut it off.

"Well that's not good," Duck stated.

"Guys, what should we do?" I asked. "We're stuck wherever, or _when_ever, 'here' is for the time being, and now Ace, Sive, and Tech are..." I felt tears come to my eyes, and I trailed off.

I knew it wasn't the right time to mourn, but I couldn't stop thinking about them. We were stuck in an unfamiliar place, and down three members; I should have been worrying about our own situation and saved thinking about Ace, Sive, and Tech for later, but I couldn't do it. I knew there was nothing we could do for them, and I couldn't stop creating 'what if I had done this differently' situations in my head. No matter what, I came back to the fact that I lost track of everything during the fight, and if I had just paid attention, then they wouldn't have died.

"Lexi?" Duck said after a moment. Slam and Rev jumped a little at the sound of his voice; they were probably thinking of the others, too. "Ace made you second-in-command, and since he's not here, I think you should take charge."

I was shocked at this for two different reasons. One was because Duck had said that. _Duck_. He had been looking to be leader ever since Zadavia first formed the team and chose Ace instead of him. I thought it was really mature of him to say it, and I was glad that he was being serious about the whole situation.

The other reason was because he was right; Ace had named me as his second-in-command, and since he wasn't there anymore, that meant that I was the new leader of the team. I wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility, and I was still reeling from the loss of about half our team. The fact that I felt responsible for that loss didn't help much, either.

Even so, I had to do something. We needed to do something and someone to follow, so I decided to take charge for the time being. I had no intention to be the full-time leader; I would only do it for as long as necessary.

"...Well, we can't stay here," I said after a moment. Some of the worry on the other's faces went away; none of them wanted to be leader at a time like that, and they were hoping I would do it. "We need to worry about ourselves first. We'll find somewhere to stop and _then_ we'll think about... Uh, we should probably peek out at the street; see what we can see. Rev, can you fly, yet?"

"I-doubt-it-my-arm-still-_really_-hurts-I-think-I-may-have-almost-broken-it-but-not-completely-like-maybe-a-hairline-fracture-or-something," he replied.

"Let's hope not; the last thing we need right now is an injury," I said, walking up to the corner of a building and peeking around it. The street was full of fast moving, hovering cars, which wasn't unusual. I didn't recognize any makes or models, though, which was odd; I wasn't a car buff, but I knew enough to know that the cars floating around on the road didn't exist in Acmetropolis. There were people walking around, too; they looked normal enough, but most of their outfits were a style that I hadn't seen before.

"A little early for Halloween, isn't it?" a male voice said behind me. I jumped a little and turned around. A middle-aged, brown haired man was standing behind me.

"I'm sorry?" I said with a confused expression.

"Well, it's not every day someone dresses up like one of the Loonatics," he replied in a tone that said 'you're not very bright, are you?' "Especially one of the originals."

"Originals?" I parroted, confused as to what he meant.

He looked as if he was about to say something, thought better of it, and walked away.

"Well-that-was-weird," Rev said behind me.

"Why do I have a feeling that we're not in Kansas anymore?" Duck asked.

"Because we're _not_, Duck. We need to figure out where we are, though," I stated. "Any ideas?"

"We-could-just-ask-someone," Rev suggested.

"I don't think we should do that," I advised. "It's probably better to try blending in, and we don't do that easily as it is."

"Haru gobla paper!" Slam said, pointing down the street. I looked where he was pointing, and saw a newspaper dispenser.

"Newspapers! Great idea, Slam!" I said. We walked up to the dispenser and stood around it.

"And how exactly do you plan on opening that without making a scene?" Duck asked.

"Yeah-Lexi-who-knows-what-kind-of-currency-they-use-here!" Rev exclaimed.

"I thought I would just open it," I replied smartly, pointing to a sign on the dispenser.

It read, "Free news. Restocked daily."

I opened it and took one. The headline said something about the 'Acmetropolis Underground."

"Well-that-proves-that-we're-still-in-our-own-dimension," Rev said. "Where's-the-date-on-that-thing?"

"Oh my gosh," I breathed when I found it. "This can't be right..."

The date read April 23, 2939. We had been sent 164 years into the future.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Wolfe's POV**

We arrived at the scene of the time rift, which was in the middle of a usually busy, but currently deserted street. That's what we usually saw when we arrived; no one around. The ones who made the time rifts liked to try to surprise attack us, but it stopped working after the second time.

Right as we touched down, dozens of shadow walkers burst out of the shadows and rushed us. Everyone separated to fight on their own (except the twins. They never separated for anything.)

Buzz spun around and took out about twenty of them at once while Mei and Donny turned into Nega and I and started rapidly attacking with our powers, taking out multiple shadow walkers around the way. Psycho flicked his hand and sent six or seven of them flying back into a wall hard enough to make them disappear, and Claire covered his back by hitting anything that got close enough at high speeds. Laela threw as many orbs as possible at the oncoming shadow walkers, and ended up throwing one that turned into a huge boulder which took out a few dozen shadow walkers on it's own as if they were bowling pins. Nega and I tried to stay out of a fight; the others could handle the shadow walkers easily enough, but it was really only Nega and I who were up to fighting the person who created them.

"Where is she?" Nega asked me anxiously. She got her answer a second later when a black beam hit the ground right between us. We both jumped back and looked for where it came from, which wasn't too difficult to find.

Floating about two stories off of the ground was a girl with a black cloak, an all black outfit including a cloak, waist length, straight black hair, black skin, and eyes that were all a strange shade of gray. She looked like that from the strange accident that affected Nega, and hated the whole world for it ever since. Her name was Celeste, and she was pretty dangerous. She had gotten similar powers to Nega, only instead of time travel, she was able to create her minions, a.k.a. the shadow walkers.

What I was worried about was the fact that Ceci wasn't there. Celeste usually sent only Ceci on a time travel trip, and whenever she wasn't there, it meant bad news for us.

"Hey, Celeste!" I yelled to her. "Where's Ceci?"

"Somewhere, or should I say some _when?_" she replied tauntingly. She had a silky smooth voice, but her personality was as sharp as a razor.

"What are you up to this time?" Nega asked. We both knew she wouldn't tell us; we were just buying time. It was pointless to do anything until Ceci got back; she was about as sharp as a spoon, and she usually ended up telling us exactly why she went whenever she did.

"I'm not going to tell you! …Yet."

Just then, Ceci flew on-scene. She looked around, spotted Celeste, and flew over to her.

"Did you do it?" Celeste asked her.

"Consider it done," Ceci replied in her annoying, high-pitched voice.

"Should we be worried about whatever it was she did?" Psycho asked me as he approached. The rest of the team was right behind him; there weren't that many shadow walkers to deal with that time.

"I think we could tell them, don't you think?" Celeste asked Ceci. "Most of them won't be around after this, anyways."

That caught everyone's attention. Whenever Celeste and Ceci did something in the past, it usually involved getting rid of one of our team member's ancestors, which made the team member them self disappear. It effectively erased them from time, and we found that after a few days, we couldn't remember them, either. We had lost one two days earlier, but we could barely remember who she was. Nega's lineage couldn't be traced, and neither could mine. The rest of the remaining team was descended directly from the original Loonatics, and they wouldn't have been easy to get rid of. The fact that she said 'most of them' suggested that she did something to the Loonatics.

"I went back into time, and killed all of them!" Ceci announced happily. Everyone (other than Celeste and Ceci) froze in place. "I sent the two green dogs and the yellow bunny flying off of the roof, and I incinerated the rest of them!"

"Do you have any idea what you may have done?" Laela yelled, making everyone (including Celeste and Ceci) jump. It took a lot to get Laela angry; more than her impending doom. "Without the original Loonatics in the time stream, then one of the original super villains could take over the world, or worse! The entire fabric of time could become unraveled!"

"I think you're over exaggerating," Celeste stated. "One of the dogs could regenerate, couldn't he? He probably survived. Anyways, I have a master plan to carry out. Ceci, if you would incinerate them, too."

We all ran off in two different directions; Nega, Laela, Buzz, and one of the twins ran off in one direction, while the other twin, Psycho, Claire and I ran the other way. Ceci took aim at my group, and fired ahead of us. Before we knew what was happening, a white light enveloped us, and I couldn't help but think of how familiar it looked as I felt myself being flung in a random direction.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Nega's POV**

I saw the light hit Wolfe, Claire, Psycho, and a twin, and I was almost more worried than I would have been had they been incinerated. The light faded, and they were gone.

"…Ceci?" Celeste began, obviously unhappy.

"What?" Ceci asked, perky as ever. She didn't even realize the mistake she made.

"Which button did you press on your gauntlet?" Celeste asked.

"The blu- Oh." She realized the mistake she made. "…I guess this would be a bad time to mention the fact that I pressed the blue button on the original Loonatics, too?"

"You _what?_" Celeste yelled. "When did you send them?"

"Here- ah- I mean now!" Ceci whimpered.

"We need to find them! Follow me," Celeste ordered, flying off in one direction. Ceci followed, and it was just Laela, Buzz, a twin and I left there.

"Where did Wolfe go?" Buzz asked.

"Some other time… We can't think about this now! We have to find the originals that are here, and before Celeste does!" I said. "Buzz, you and I will search uptown. Laela, you and-" I caught sight of the twin, and stopped short. It looked like he/she (I didn't know which one it was,) was in shock. He/she was shivering, and then his/her legs gave out. Laela rushed to his/her side.

"Mei, are you alright?" she asked. Laela's aura vision somehow made her able to tell which twin was which.

"I- I don't want to fade!" Mei whimpered, hugging Laela. "Ceci sent some of them here, but not Ace! He went off the roof! He's dead, and now I'm going to-!" She started sobbing.

'Fading' is what we called it when someone was erased from time. They literally started fading away before completely disappearing. It didn't seem pleasant.

"…Laela, take her back to HQ," I ordered. "Buzz and I will search." We could've really used her aura vision, but Mei needed her more.

Laela started leading Mei back to HQ on foot, and Buzz and I ran off in the other direction.

_Please tell me we won't be too late, _I thought. _We can't lose anyone else._

**A/N: I DIDN'T KILL EVERYONE! Just making sure everybody knows that. But what did I do to everyone from the future? XD Next chapter's going to be long, just so everyone knows. On the plus side… THIS IS MY SPRING BREAK! So I have the rest of the week off! You can expect the next chapter Thursday-ish. Until then, R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I DID IT! I got it done! Yay! So, this is an awesome chapter, and it wasn't **_**nearly**_** as long as I thought it would be. So, in this chapter, what happened to Wolfe's party is explained, and it's pretty epic if I do say so myself. **

**As for when I can get the next chapter up… Probably not until the weekend. I'm going to try for Saturday, but if that doesn't work, then I'll get it up on Sunday. Anyways, read on!**

_April 23, 2775_

**Wolfe's POV**

I had never wanted to know what going through a time rift felt like, and when I did find out, I decided to never do it again.

I gasped for breath when I landed on the ground, and I tried getting up right away to run back to the portal. That didn't work out so well for me; the portal flung someone out right at me, so I ended up back on the ground with whoever-it-was on top of me.

"That-was-_terrible_!" Claire yelled from somewhere to my right.

"The landing wasn't so bad, though," the person on top of me said. I could now tell it was one of the twins, so I growled at him/her (I didn't know which one it was.) He/she jumped off of me immediately. "Sorry, Wolfe."

I stood up, brushed myself off, glared at the twin, and looked around. We were in a hallway, and it was pretty dark.

"Where are we?" Psycho asked. "And _when_ are we?"

"Well-it-looks-as-if-we're-in-some-kind-of-building-but-as-to-when-we-are-that's-another-question-I-have-no-idea," Claire stated.

"We had better look around," I stated. I looked at the others, and saw that the twin looked upset. "What's up with you?" I asked him/her. "Lost without your other half?"

"Well, there's that, and the fact that I'm going to fade in the near future," he/she stated sullenly.

"What are you talking about?" Psycho asked. "Ceci sent the Loonatics to the future, remember?"

"Not Ace... Or Sive or Tech," the twin stated.

_Oh, shit. I forgot about that._

"Wait... That means I'm going to fade, too! Aww, _shit_!" Psycho shouted when he realized what was about to happen. Psycho wasn't the smartest person sometimes, but he was usually smart enough to help Claire in the lab when she needed it. He had his moments of stupidity, though.

I wasn't sure what to do; there was nothing that could be done to stop someone from fading, and we needed to figure out where and when we were, but Claire and I couldn't just leave them. It was conflicting.

"...Wolfe, don't worry about us right now," Psycho said after a moment. I jumped a little at his voice; I was focusing on what we should do so much, I was surprised by the sudden sound. "There's nothing you can do for us; you know it and we know it. We'll help you for as long as possible." The twin nodded in agreement. It was really mature of them to be so accepting of what was going to happen, and yet help Claire and I get home, even though they probably wouldn't make it there.

"Thanks, guys," I replied. "As I was saying, we should look around. Claire, you and Psycho take that end of the hallway. Mei, you-"

"I'm _Donny_."

"Sorry, Donny. You come with me down this way. If you guys run into anyone... We need to be on the defensive here. If they see you first, then fight back. If you see them first, don't risk letting them see you."

We went our separate ways, and I really hoped we wouldn't meet anyone.

Unfortunately, Donny and I walked up to a room where two people were talking. We hid in the shadows and watched for a minute, then one of them walked away.

"Donny, I'm going after the other one," I whispered. "Get the guy that's still here."

"Got it."

I sneaked off in the direction the other person walked in, hoping Donny could handle himself without Mei around, and that the person I was following would go down easy.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

I was completely exhausted, but I still couldn't sleep. Tech had been the only one who knew what he was doing concerning looking for the portals, so Ace and I just stood back and watched as he did whatever he could. We felt like we should have been doing something to help, even though Tech had told us multiple times that there was nothing we could do. Eventually, Ace and I went to bed, and Tech said he would go as well.

I looked over at my clock for the thousandth time since I got into bed. _2:31 AM_.

I was too anxious to sleep; I was worried about Lexi, Rev, Slam, and Duck. We still had no idea where they were, or if they were alright. It was terrifying to think of the possibility of more than half of the team being gone for good; we were like the strangest, most dysfunctional family in the history of _ever_, but we were still very close to each other. It would've been hard to cope with losing one of us, much less four.

The only upside to the situation was that we weren't the only ones looking for them; we had called Zadavia and told her what had happened, so she called some of her contacts to do some searching. She said she would call as soon as she found anything, but we hadn't heard from her again since.

After it felt as if a few hours had passed since I looked at the clock, I looked again. _2:40 AM_.

_That's it. I give up._

I threw off the covers and sat up; there was no way I was going to get any sleep, so I figured I would go watch TV or something. I stood up and quietly walked out of the room. I was only in a tank top and sweatpants, but I didn't bother changing; I didn't really care if anyone saw me in my pajamas, and Ace and Tech were asleep, anyways.

I walked into the living room, and I was surprised to see Tech on the couch with a laptop. Unlike me, he was still in his uniform. He heard me come in, and he looked up to see who it was.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied as I walked up to him. I saw that his hand was all bandaged up. "What happened to your hand?"

"One of those shadow walkers scratched me. I'm fine, but this cut isn't healing..."

"Are you sure it's not Black Velvet we're dealing with?" He smirked and ignored me. "How long have you been out here, anyway? Did you even go to bed?"

"I did, for a while. It didn't take very long for me to give up on sleeping and go back to work, though. Ace is up, too; he's blowing off steam in the training room."

"What are you doing here instead of the lab?"

"The lab and the training room are one floor apart. When someone really goes at it in there, I can hear it."

"Ahh. So, have you found anything, yet?"

"Not yet, but like I said earlier, the computer doesn't pick the portals up until after the fact. I can scan individual areas, but unless I do it as one opens, then I miss it. I'm trying to program this to..." He started talking about something that I didn't understand, and I ended up tuning him out. I started thinking about the others again, and I got lost in my own thoughts.

"Sive?" Tech said, pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked at him, and he was looking back at me. He seemed a bit... Worried. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm just... Worried about the others."

"Relax, Sive," he said. "Knowing them, they'll be alright and make fun of us later for freaking out so much. They can handle themselves. Lexi can handle herself, nothing gets Rev down, it takes a lot to phase Slam, and Duck... Well, he's with the others. He'll be alright." We both laughed. Then, there was an awkward silence.

"...You know, we should probably check on Ace and make sure he doesn't hurt himself or anything," I stated.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

"You stay and keep working. I'll be right back."

I walked out of the room and down the hall. It was really dark in the hallways because of how late it was, which was why I didn't notice the guy following me.

He stepped on a squeaky part of the floor that I was always careful to avoid (it always startled Lexi,) and that's when I became aware of his presence. I suddenly darted forward and turned around to look at him. The guy was a silver wolf anthro, but the really strange thing was that he was wearing one of our uniforms, only with a grey triangle. He didn't give me a chance to think about it, though, as pulled something out of his back pocket. It looked like the hilt of a sword; Ace's sword.  
_  
That's impossible. Ace never lets that thing out of his sight._

Suddenly, a whole blade popped out of the hilt.

_Okay, so he does have Ace's sword. But that means that he's already met up with Ace... And if he has his sword, then that means that Ace is in trouble!_

I had to deal with that guy fast to find Ace, but he seemed to have a similar plan. He slashed at me multiple times in quick succession, so I jumped, spun, and dived out of the way to avoid being cut in two. At one point, I almost lost my footing, but I was able to jump back in the nick of time to avoid being killed. It was too close for comfort; he left a long cut across my stomach on my shirt, but I didn't feel anything, so I figured that he missed me.

I didn't even have time to charge an electricity blast; that guy just didn't quit. I did end up phasing through his sword a few times, but he was so focused on attacking me, I didn't think he noticed. At one point, it felt like there was a draft coming from somewhere, but I ignored it. I stopped ignoring it when the wind suddenly got strong enough to fling me against a wall hard enough to daze me.

_Where did _that_ come from?_

My vision cleared again just in time for me to see the wolf guy approaching me. In order to avoid being caught, I did the only thing I could think of; phase through the floor.

I was in an odd position against the wall, so I wasn't going to be able to land on my feet. What made the situation worse was that I landed on someone, and we both ended up on the floor. The upside was that I knew who it was.

"Nice of ya ta drop in, Sive," Ace said as he got back on his feet, "but we do have doors, ya know."

"You're... Okay?" I asked, dumbfounded.

_If he's alright, then how did that other guy get his sword?_

"Yeah, of course I am! ...Why wouldn't I be?" he asked. Then he looked at me oddly. "You don't seem ta be alright, though. What happened ta you?"

"Huh?" I looked myself over, and saw what he was talking about instantly. The cut on my stomach was bleeding a bit, but not in a life-threatening way. It looked and felt more like a long, deep paper cut. "Oh, that. I'm alright, don't worry about it. But- wait! There's this crazy guy upstairs who attacked me! And he had your sword!"

"No he doesn't," Ace replied, pulling his sword out from behind him. "I never let dis thing out of my sight after dat whole 'Deuce' incident."

"Then what did that other guy have...?"

"Uh, Sive? Where's Tech?" Ace asked.

"He's... Oh, shit! He's still upstairs!"

"Den what are we doin' standin' around here?" Ace asked as he darted off towards the nearest staircase. I followed him, and we didn't stop for anything as we ran towards the living room.

It didn't take us very long to get there, but when we did, we found Tech fighting against someone else. It looked like a female duck, and she was throwing these orbs that exploded into random substances. Tech had a shield up, and was standing behind it. The guy I was fighting earlier ran in a moment later, sword drawn.

"Day guy _does_ have a Guardian Strike Sword!" Ace said incredulously. "Sive, go help Tech! I've got dis guy!"

He darted off, and sword guy was surprised to see him, but got over it. A sword fight ensued between them, and they looked to be fairly evenly matched.

I snuck over so I was crouched behind a table behind the girl fighting Tech. There were a bunch of random odds and ends on the table, so I grabbed something and threw it. I wasn't using my electricity powers yet; the duck was too close to Tech, so he would probably have been zapped, too.

I ended up throwing a fake potted plant, and it hit the duck in the back of her head. She flinched and turned around, giving Tech a chance to move out of the way. I threw an electricity orb at her, but before it hit her, she disappeared.

"What the...?" I muttered, looking around.

"Be careful," Tech advised as he ran over to me. "She appears out of nowhere and suddenly attacks."

"Noted," I replied, looking around. Suddenly, the wolf guy appeared next to us. "Look out!" I yelled, pulling Tech out of the way just in time as the wolf guy sent a blast of wind at us.

_So that's where that came from..._

The wolf guy used his wind powers at us again, but instead of a sudden gust that sent us flying like before, it was just strong enough to make it hard to keep our eyes open. Suddenly, it felt as if someone was throwing razor blades at us in the wind. It hurt, and I put my arms up to cover my face.

It stopped suddenly, and I looked up to see Tech covering us with a shield. He was covered in cuts, and I figured I looked the same way.

"Care to do the honors?" Tech asked.

"Don't mind if I do," I replied as I stuck my arm back outside of the shield. I shot a blast of electricity at the wolf guy, and he was sent flying back into a wall.

"If _we_ were fighting _him_," Tech began, "then who's Ace fighting?" We looked over and saw that Ace was still going at it with the first wolf guy with the sword. "That's weird."

"Maybe this one can answer our questions," I said, gesturing towards the dazed double. Tech started approaching him, when something darted out of a hallway and threw him back. Whatever it was, it was _fast_.

"Are you alright?" I asked Tech as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What was that?"

"Call me crazy, but it looked kind of like Rev."

The fast thing came back around, stopped, and helped the wolf double back to his feet. Now we could see it, and I realized why it looked like Rev. It was another roadrunner, only she was blue, or, mostly blue, and wearing an interesting white outfit.

"Which one do you want to take?" Tech asked.

"I'll take on the roadrunner if you can finish the wolf."

"Done."

Then, suddenly, the wolf guy changed into a large yellow Tasmanian devil, and the roadrunner made three copies of herself. They weren't completely identical, though; the original roadrunner was blue, yellow, and orange, so she separated into one all blue roadrunner, one all yellow roadrunner, and one all orange roadrunner. They were all still wearing the same outfit, though.

"...Want to switch?" Tech asked.

"Please."

The devil ran forward, and I sidestepped as Tech jumped back to avoid being hit. They continued fighting behind us, so it was just the roadrunners and I left.

They ran forward, and before I could react, they started running circles around me. I couldn't get out, and they threw punches every so often. I could've just phased out, but I had a better idea. I braced myself, and stuck my arm out into their path. They ran into it, and were thrown off course. They all ended up running into the same spot on a wall, which caused them to join back into one multi-colored roadrunner. She slumped to the floor.

I was about to go help Tech with the Tasmanian devil, who could apparently spin around in a tornado like Slam, when a picture frame came flying at me from across the room. I ducked to avoid it, and looked up to see a lavender coyote anthro standing in a doorway. He waved his hand, and a ball from the pool table came flying at me. I ducked again to avoid it.

_How many of these guys are there?_

I lobbed an electricity orb at him, but he jumped out of the way. He waved his hand again, and that time a lamp came flying off of a table at me. I let it phase through me, and I heard it break against something. I turned around and saw the Tasmanian devil holding his head, pieces of the lamp at his feet. Tech drop-kicked him with enough force to send him flying into a wall. The devil turned into a young, blue bunny upon impact, and slumped to the floor.

"Shape shifter," Tech stated at my look of confusion. He widened his eyes and yelled, "Look out!" He pulled me back a few feet as a toaster came flying out of nowhere. He caught it with his magnetism, saw the other coyote out of the corner of his eye, and threw the toaster back at him. The coyote didn't see it coming, and he was knocked out.

"Think that was the last of them?" I asked.

"I hope so," Tech replied. "You okay?"

I looked myself over, and wasn't too happy with what I saw. My arms were covered in cuts from the fight with the wolf double, and the cut on my stomach was still bleeding. Tech, on the other hand, didn't have a remaining scratch on him by then thanks to his regeneration. "I'll live."

I looked over and saw Ace still going at it with the real wolf. Neither one had a mark on them; it was a completely even match. I just hoped that there weren't any more of them.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Wolfe's POV**

I was surprised when the coyote girl I followed phased through the floor, but I didn't think anything of it. I was shocked when the other coyote was wearing a Loonatics style uniform, and I didn't know what to think. But when a yellow bunny started fighting me with a Guardian Strike Sword, that was too much.

My first thought was that we were fighting against Ace, Tech, and Sive of the original Loonatics, but I had to remind myself that they were dead. Then I thought that we had been sent back in time to before they died, but that didn't make any sense, either; Lexi, Duck, Slam, and Rev would have been there. I figured that we would take control of the situation, as in beat the three in a fight, and then we would ask questions. I didn't count on losing, however; we had them outnumbered, we had the element of surprise, and yet they still managed to beat us. Well, the coyotes managed to beat Donny, Claire, and Psycho, but the bunny and I were evenly matched. When Psycho went down, though, I knew we were beat.

"Face it, doc," the bunny said in a heavy Brooklyn accent, "we've got ya beat. Even if ya managed to get past me, ya still got dem ta deal with." He gestured towards the coyotes, who were staying near Claire, Donny, and Psycho, who were waking up. "So, mind tellin' us who ya are and why you're here?"

"...You first," I replied. The bunny looked shocked, and my comment caught the attention of both of the coyotes.

"...Ya don't know who we are?" the bunny asked incredulously. I shook my head. "Uh, we're da Loonatics. I'm Ace, and dat's Tech and Sive over dere." The coyotes waved to me.

"...What? That's _impossible_!" I shouted. They went off of the side of a building; they were dead. There was no way that was them! And yet... "How did you survive?"

"Survive what?" Sive asked. "You need to be specific; people have tried killing us on many occasions."

"The fall off of the roof!" I replied.

"How do you know about that...?" Tech asked. "It happened only a few hours ago."

"Ceci told me herself," I replied.

"You're friends with _Ceci_?" Ace asked. He didn't look happy with me.

"_Friends_? You've _got_ to be kidding!" I responded. "She's been out to get us for _years_! Well, that's actually more _Celeste_ than Ceci, but whatever."

"Celeste?" Ace repeated.

"Ceci's partner."

"I _told_ you it wasn't Velvet!" Tech said to Sive. She waved him off.

"Seriously, though, how did you survive the fall?" I asked again.

"Tech caught us on a pipe with his magnetism, and Sive got us through da roof," Ace explained. There was no way that it wasn't the real Ace, Tech, and Sive I was talking to; they were alive. Donny and Psycho looked relieved. "So, who're you?" Ace asked me again.

I put away my sword and replied, "My name's Wolfe."

"Is dere a last name dat goes with dat?" Ace asked.

"Wolfe _is_ my last name. My first name is Silver, but nobody calls me that. My parents were _really_ original." I paused, trying to figure out what I was going to say. "...There's something I need to explain to you, but I'm not sure how."

"Can-I-help?" Claire asked from across the room. She stood up and zipped over next to me. "Hi-my-name-is-Claire-Claire-Runner-we're-from-the-future-and-part-of-a-future-team-of-Loonatics-called-the-L5-the-rabbit-over-there-is-Donny-Hart-and-the-coyote-is-Psycho-O'Bryant."

"...Wait, what?" Sive said, completely confused.

"She talks as fast as Rev..." Tech commented, but he also looked confused.

"Well-I-am-his-descendant," Claire explained.

"Wow, okay, this is hard to follow..." Sive stated. Ace and Tech nodded in agreement. Then, Tech seemed to have a light bulb moment.

"Wait a second... If you're from the future, then that would mean Ceci was from the future... And if Ceci's from the future, then that would mean those portals she makes are temporal, which would make sense considering how the fluxes were too powerful to be spacial, and we haven't even started researching accessing alternate dimensions... Then that would mean that Lexi, Slam, Rev, and Duck were sent through time! It all fits!" Ace and Sive looked at him like he was nuts. "Take my word for it; it makes sense."

"Actually, Ceci said that she accidentally sent them to _our_ time," Donny stated.

"Are dey alright?" Ace asked urgently. He calmed down when Donny shrugged his shoulders.

"We were sent back here before we found them," I replied.

"Wait, if she's Rev's descendant, then who're you three?" Tech asked us.

"I'm your descendant, Ace," Donny replied. "I was terrified when we thought you were dead; I would've been erased from time!"

"So would I," Psycho said. Tech and Sive looked at him. "I'm Sive's descendant."

"Dere are certain likenesses between you two," Ace commented, referring to their matching eyes and white faces. He turned back to me.

"I'm no one's descendant," I replied. "I came from outside the usual group. The descendants from the original group, that is, you guys, have been the core of all of the teams going back."

"How many of them have there been?" Tech asked.

"We're the L5; short for Loonatics 5th Generation," I replied.

"Wow..." Tech whispered, completely in awe.

"You know, you guys are still big shots in our time," Donny stated. "It's pretty awesome to be standing in the same room as you!"

"Wait-a-second-if-we're-here-then-that-means-that-we-were-sent-around-160-years-into-the-past!" Claire yelled.

That was a scary thought. Time travel technology wasn't made until the year 2816, so we would be stuck there for a while at that rate. Meanwhile, Celeste and Ceci would be back in our time wreaking havoc. And then there was the rest of the team... Nega, Laela, Mei, and Buzz would have a tough time of it without us.

"What year is it?" I asked urgently.

"2775," Tech replied. We were all in shock.

"That's 164 years!" Psycho shouted.

"We need to get back to our own time... But how?" I asked.

"And we need ta figure out how ta get our guys back to _our_ own time," Ace stated.

"Ever hear of Dr. Fidel Chroniker?" Tech asked.

"You-mean-_the_-Fidel-Chroniker-oh-my-gosh-he's-where-I-get-inspiration-from-for-some-of-my-inventions!" Claire squealed.

"Claire's our techie," I explained.

"I'll go give Chroniker a call," Tech said, heading for a phone.

"Tech, I'd take a good, _long_ look at a clock before doing that," Sive said. Based on the fact that the sun was just coming up, I figured it was really early.

"Oh, uh, I'll wait until morning, then."

"And, ah, sorry for attacking you guys," I said. "We didn't know what kind of situation we were in, so we were being overly cautious."

"Don't worry about it, doc," Ace said. "We would've done da same thing in da same situation. And besides, no one was hurt." He then got a good look at Sive, who was all cut up and glaring at him. "Uh, well, not seriously hurt, anyway."

"Jeez-what-happened-to-you?" Claire asked as she zipped over and took a good look at Sive, who glared at Donny.

"Eh-heh... Don't hurt me!" he said as he turned into a turtle and ducked inside his shell. Everyone else laughed at him; I was just glad that Sive wasn't mad at me for the first cut I gave her.

"Here-let-me-fix-you-up-real-quick-where's-a-first-aid-kit?" Claire asked.

"Claire's also the resident medic," I explained.

"Follow me to the infirmary," Sive said, as she started walking down a hallway. Claire zipped off after her.

Of all of the places and times we could've ended up, I was glad it was there and then.

**A/N: So, what do you think? Tell me in a review! …Please?**

**In the next installment… What happens to Lexi, Rev, Duck, and Slam!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: YAY! I did it! I got it up today! That makes me happy. Why? Because I have little to no time tomorrow to do it. I won't have a lot of time at all this week, actually… DX Anyways, so, in this chapter, a lot of stuff happens. The first bit is a little reflection time for Lexi, who still thinks that Ace and Sive are dead and that Tech is alone in their time (oh, the dramatic irony! XD) And the part after that is just pain awesomeness. Read it, and you'll know what I mean.**

_April 23, 2939_  
**  
Lexi's POV  
**  
We had been wandering around for a while, looking for an out-of-the-way place to stop and think. We kept walking down the same street we started off on, and as we moved further and further down, there were less and less people around. Eventually, we reached a wooded area that we were all familiar with; it was what was left of the original Central Park, which was still about 2/3 of it. We liked going there on slow days back in our own time, so we figured that we would stop there.

We followed a path until we came upon an area that had a few benches, a couple trash cans, a large statue of some guy in a beret, and a nice view of the lake in the background. It was a pleasant place, but the weather was reflecting our mood; cloudy with impending rain.

"Let's stop here," I said. "We'll rest and try to figure out what we should do." I knew that was the last thing on anyone's mind, but I wasn't going to bluntly say what was.

Rev and Slam each walked over to a bench and sat down, while Duck quacked on top of the statue's hat. I sat down on the last bench, and tried to stay focused on what we should do next. Since I was acting leader, I had to figure out what we were supposed to be doing.

We needed figure out how we could get back to our own time; that had to be our first priority. We couldn't exactly walk into a library and look up time travel or anything; we stood out too much. We didn't have any friends that we could call up for help, and we couldn't exactly walk up to someone and ask, 'Do you know anything about time travel?'

_...We wouldn't have to ask anyone if Tech were here._

I brushed off the thought; I had to stay focused. I had to come up with some other way to get information, or try to figure out who could help us. No matter how hard I tried, though, I couldn't come up with anything.

_...Ace always knew what to do._

I shook off the thought again. I needed to concentrate on what was really important; getting home. Slam, Rev, and Duck needed my help, and it would take all of us to get back. Since I was acting leader, figuring out what to do was mostly my responsibility. I was really freaking out about it, but it wasn't like I could vent to the others about what I was worrying about. I was close friends with them and all, but I felt awkward talking to them about some things.  
_  
...I could always talk to Sive._

I gave up on trying to think of what to do as I looked at the others; it was obvious where their minds were. Rev was sitting almost absolutely still, staring at the ground, hanging his head and rubbing his hurt arm. Slam was resting his elbows on his knees, and resting his head on his hands. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he was awake. Duck was facing away from the rest of us, half-heartedly throwing pebbles into the lake.

I looked back down, and decided not to put it off any longer; for sanity's sake, I had to think about them. I was putting it off both because I had convinced myself I had to, and because I didn't want to believe that they were really gone. I would slowly drive myself insane if I kept it up.

Tech was probably still alive back in our own time. I hoped that he would be alright on his own; who knew how long it would take us to get back? He probably didn't even know what happened to us after he fell off the roof. I was going to miss him while we were stuck there. He could be confusing at times, but he was still really helpful to us with his inventions and overall knowledge of everything. I wasn't sure how we would get along without him with us.

Then there was Ace. There was no chance of seeing him again. I didn't know how we'd get along without him, either; he was a spectacular leader, and I could never hope to compare to him. He always knew what to do, and he was ready for anything. Outside of the team, he was my boyfriend. He was always there for me, and he was the sweetest, most down-to-earth guy I had ever known, much less dated. I wasn't sure how I'd manage without him, but the whole team would suffer greatly from his loss.

Sive had been my best girl-friend. I felt like I could talk to her about anything, and she would always go do girl stuff with me when I asked, even though some of it wasn't her favorite thing to do. We were closer than peanut butter and jelly. I would probably miss her sarcastic sense of humor the most; it was usually the bright spot to my day. Her powers made surprise attacking the enemy easy, too, and she was good at sneaking around in general. It was going to be tough to get along without her.

I felt a drop of water hit my knee, so I thought it had started raining; it was completely silent, though, so that couldn't have been it. I rubbed my eyes out of tiredness, and realized that I was crying. I pulled my sleeves up over my palms and dried off my face. I looked around and saw that the others hadn't moved an inch, and I also saw that we weren't alone anymore.

"Uh, guys," I said urgently, getting to my feet as the person approached us on the path. She looked a lot like Black Velvet, except she was shorter and her hair went down to her waist. She even had the same black skin; I had no idea who she was, but the likeness was enough to worry me.

Slam, Rev, and Duck reacted immediately; Rev zipped over next to me, Slam walked up to us, and Duck appeared a moment later. The girl stopped and just stared at us.

"Who're you?" Duck asked.

"I am Celeste," she replied. "You're the Loonatics, aren't you." It was a statement, not a question.

"What do you want?" I asked. Whoever she was, I didn't like her, and I wanted her gone.

"What I _want_ is a partner who does her job right the _first_ time," she replied with venom, talking half to us and half to whoever her partner was, who didn't seem to be there.

"Who's-you're-partner?" Rev asked. He still spoke quicker than the average person, but he spoke slow enough that Celeste could understand him.

"I think you've already met her, actually. You remember Ceci?"

We were wary of her before, but that made us go on the defensive right away. It also made us pretty mad; Ceci was the one who killed Ace and Sive, sent us to the future, and left Tech alone in our own time.

"Ahh, so you do remember," Celeste said in response to our reactions. "Well, she screwed up _big_ _time_ sending you all here, so it looks like I'm going to have to be the one to correct her error, as usual."

"Error?" I repeated, worried about what she meant.

She didn't reply as she waved her hand towards the trees. The shadows looked strange for a moment; it was as if they were solidifying into a strange, black goop. The goop solidified into human-like beings, and right as I realized what she did, a half-dozen shadow walkers approached us from all angles, and there were plenty more waiting in the shadows.

"Yes, _error_. Ceci was supposed to get rid of _all_ of you, but she only got rid of _two_ of you. So, as usual, _I'm_ the one stuck cleaning up _her_ mess!" Celeste shouted, annoyed with Ceci, who still wasn't there.

"Guys, you handle the shadow walkers! I'll deal with Celeste!" I said as the shadow walkers attacked. I ran out of the resulting fray and closer to Celeste, but I wasn't going to rush her or anything until I knew what she could do.

"You really think you're a match for _me_?" Celeste asked skeptically. I hoped she was just being overconfident.

She jumped up off of the ground, but didn't land again as she flew around overhead. She stopped moving for a moment, raised her arm, and fired a black beam at me. I jumped out of the way, landed on my hands, and flipped back onto my feet. She started circling again, and I tried firing a brain blast at her, but she was too quick, and I missed. She stopped moving for a moment, but right as I was about to fire at her, she fired at me. I barely had enough time to move, much less aim. My brain blast went way to the left, and Celeste started circling again.

She stopped again to fire at me, but I was expecting it that time, and I fired a brain blast at her before she got a shot off. She wasn't expecting it, and it hit her head on, causing her to fall. I thought I had already won the fight, but she caught herself in midair, and arced back up before she could hit the ground.

"Lucky shot," she said, "but it won't happen again." She fired at me again, and I jumped back to avoid it. "You Loonatics have caused me so many problems in more ways than you know! Now I can finally end it all!"

_How did we cause problems for someone more than 100 years away from us?_ I thought. I didn't have time to think about it, though; she started firing at me in fast, short bursts that were hard to avoid. They exploded upon impact with anything, so I was too focused on avoiding being killed to try attacking her.

This continued for a few minutes until I heard Rev scream in pain. Celeste was interested enough to stop firing at me to see what had happened, so I had a moment to check on the others.

Duck and Slam were covering Rev, who was leaning against a tree. His arm was bent at an odd angle just below his shoulder; right where he said he hurt it. It must have broken, and there was no way he could fight anymore.

_Oh, shit,_ I thought. _What do we do now?_

I was so distracted worrying about what we should do, I didn't notice Celeste turn her attention back to me. I turned just in time to see her fire another beam at me, but not in time to move out of the way.

Fortunately, I had help with that. Someone ran past me from behind, grabbed me by my shirt, and pulled me out of the way just in time as Celeste's beam demolished a tree that was right behind where I had been standing. The guy put me down when we were out of the way, so I was finally able to look at him.

He looked just like Slam, only yellow. He was even wearing one of our uniforms, but I was too preoccupied to think about that. He was apparently just as strong as Slam, too, because he picked up one of the trash cans and threw it full-force at Celeste. She certainly wasn't expecting it; she yelped in surprise when it hit her, and was scrambling to get it off of her a moment later.

"Uh... Thanks," I said to the yellow guy. He turned to face me with a curious expression on his face. "And you are...?"

"Buzz," he grunted. "You're all okay?" he asked in rough English. He struggled a bit with his words, so I figured it wasn't his first language.

"I'm fine, but one of my friends..." I turned to find Rev, but I couldn't see him from where we were. Shadow walkers were flying in every direction in one area, which was probably where Slam was, but there was no sign of Rev or Duck. "Where are they...?" I asked mainly myself as I scanned the hoard for them.

"Go help them," Buzz ordered. "I'll handle Celeste."

"Will you be alright?"

"Don't worry; just go."

I didn't argue with him; Celeste had finally gotten the trash can off of herself, and she didn't look happy. I ran into the hoard of shadow walkers, and tried my best to avoid them as I made my way to the spot I had last seen Rev and Duck. I brain blasted anything that got in my way, and kept moving in what I hoped was the right direction.

Thankfully, it was, but when I reached the tree that Rev had been leaning on, no one was there. I looked around again, but all I could see was shadow walkers. Then, Slam spun in and cleared a wide path where a few dozen shadow walkers were standing a moment earlier.

"Slam!" I yelled to get his attention. He stopped where he was, saw me, and ran over. "Do you know where Duck and Rev are?"

"Uhh..." He looked around, but turned back to me, shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head.

Just then, Duck made himself known. "Try this on for size!" he yelled from somewhere a ways ahead of us. A wide, powerful, blue and yellow beam appeared out of nowhere and got rid of about a third of the assembled shadow walkers.

We could now see Duck, who was standing in the lake in order to use his aqua dense power. Rev was sitting on the shore near him, clutching his arm. They both appeared to be alright (more or less,) and I was ecstatic. We were winning by a landslide now that Duck was in the water; he fired another wide range beam and took out another third of the shadow walkers.

"Since when can he do _that_?" a familiar, annoyingly high-pitched voice said above Slam and I. We looked up and saw Ceci flying above us; we were still under the tree, so she hadn't seen us, yet.

"Hey, Slam? Could you give me a lift?" I asked, jabbing my thumb in the general upward direction.

He smirked and cupped his hands. I put one foot on his hands, and he lifted me upward. I grabbed onto a higher branch and scrambled onto it so I was standing up. I now had a clear shot at Ceci, and I didn't waste it. I fired a brain blast at her, and she didn't even know what hit her as she went flying forward and eventually hit the ground.

I peeked through the leaves to see the scene below. Buzz had still been fighting with Celeste, but he hadn't been able to attack again. She, on the other hand, hit him a few times, and he was losing. They both stood still and watched as Ceci went flying and landed a few yards away from them; it looked like Buzz could've used the break, anyway.

"Ceci, _what_ are you doing?" Celeste snapped.

"I was looking for you," Ceci replied as she peeled herself off of the ground. "That fox followed me around as I was looking for the Loonatics, and I wasn't getting anywhere, so I came looking for you! But it looks as if you already found them..."

"Please tell me that you at least got rid of her before coming here," Celeste said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Ceci struck me as someone who wasn't very bright, and the next thing she said proved me right.

"...Oops."

Suddenly, a purple fox anthro came running out of the trees and stopped a ways away from Celeste. She looked frightening; it wasn't her gothic coloring or all black clothing that made me nervous about her, but her eyes. They were strangely discolored, and they were pretty scary looking.

"Hello again," the fox said to Celeste. "You didn't really think you could lose me that easily, did you, Celeste?"

Celeste was giving her an if-looks-could-kill glare, and I figured that they had some unpleasant history.

"I _really_ hate you, you know that?" Celeste said to the fox.

"I've known for a while. Now, are you going to leave, or am I going to have to beat you around first?" she asked as some kind of dark energy started collecting around her hands.

"_I'll_ be doing the beating, thank you," Celeste stated as she fired a beam at the fox. She darted out of the way, and started running circles around Celeste to keep her from getting a good shot at her. "Stand still!"

"Like _that's_ going to happen!"

Meanwhile, no one seemed to notice Ceci getting ready to fire off a sound blast. No one except for Buzz and I, that is. I fired off a brain blast at her from the tree, and it sent her flying backward into a tree. She rapidly looked around to figure out where it came from, but was confused because she had no idea. Buzz then walked up behind the completely oblivious Ceci, grabbed her by her shirt, and flung her into some of the remaining shadow walkers. There were only five left at that point; Duck had gotten rid of most of them.

I looked back over to Celeste and the fox, and Celeste had started firing the short, quick bursts at her. The fox seemed to know exactly where to move, though, as she flipped, jumped, and dived out of their way. She looked almost graceful doing it, and seemed to know exactly what she was doing as if she knew exactly where she shouldn't be to avoid the blasts. She was even able to attack Celeste while dodging; she was able to fire a similar black energy from her hands as Celeste, and she was pretty accurate.

After receiving one particularly hard hit, Celeste stopped firing at the fox and looked around. She realized that she and Ceci were the only ones on their side left standing, and that she wasn't the only one losing. Ceci was being double teamed by Buzz and Duck, and whenever she dodged whatever large object Buzz threw at her, she was hit by an egg or two from Duck. Celeste obviously didn't like what she saw, and after one more disdainful look at her situation, she flew off. It took a minute for Ceci to realize that Celeste had left, but when she did, she quickly looked around and flew off in a random direction.

I jumped out of the tree and back onto the ground as Duck quacked over to Rev, who was leaning on a tree, still clutching his arm. Slam and I ran over to them as Buzz met up with the fox.

"Rev, are you alright?" I asked as we reached them.

"Been better," he replied through gritted teeth.

"What happened?" I asked. Duck was the one who answered.

"I'm not really sure, but we were surrounded by those shadow walker things, and I saw one of them hit Rev's arm, and, well... The rest is history."

"Are you all okay?" a female voice asked behind us. I turned around and saw the fox and Buzz standing behind us.

"Most of us... One of those shadow walkers broke his arm, though," I said, turning back to Rev. I wasn't sure how we would help him, but at least the fox and Buzz seemed to be on our side. I was hoping that they could help us.

"May I?" the fox asked, approaching Rev. He uncovered his arm, and it was bent at a worse angle than before. "We should be able to fix that back at HQ."

"I'm sorry, but... Who are you?" I asked the fox.

"My name's Nega. There's a lot of explaining that we need to do, but we can't do it here," she said. I was about to ask what she meant by that, but she cut me off. "I'm sure that you're really confused right now, Lexi, but _please_ trust me when I say that we're on the same side. All we want to do is help."

I was shocked; she knew my name. I never told them my name.

"Yeah, we know who you are," she explained. "You're Lexi Bunny, you're Danger Duck, you're Slam Tasmanian, and you're Rev Runner. We're from the future; we know these things. But _please_; can I finish explanations at HQ? I'm sure Rev wants to fix up his arm right now, and on top of that, one of our friends is in deep trouble."

I looked at the others for their input. The way I saw it, they just saved our lives from Celeste and Ceci, and now they were saying that they wanted to help us. I didn't completely believe them yet, but we didn't really have much choice; Rev needed help sooner than later, and we didn't have anyone else to turn to.

Slam just shrugged, but Duck nodded yes, so I figured, 'why not?'

"Alright, lead the way."

**A/N: Pretty awesome, am I right? XD Here's some bad news, though: I have so little time this week, I may not be able to get another chapter up until sometime next week. Why? Because I'm starting school again. ;~; Yeah, I'm not happy, either. I'll get it up ASAP, which will hopefully be the weekend, but no guarantees. R&R! …Please?**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I did this early! Yay! Okay, so this week wasn't as hectic as I thought it was, but it was still pretty bad. DX I got three separate projects to do! …Anyways, I'll try to get the next chapter up early next week or over the weekend, but expect it to be out Tuesday-ish. **

**And, for my AcexLexi fans out there (I know I have a couple,) I heard a song while on vacation and I thought, "Wow, that song would be great for an AcexLexi songfic!" So, I'm going to try out my first songfic in the next few weeks. Something to look forward to!**

_April 23, 2939  
_  
**Lexi's POV**

Their HQ was a ways away from the park, but luckily for us, it didn't start raining until after we got there. It was a tall, thin building, like our HQ back home, but there was no floating sphere at the top. We took an elevator to one of the upper floors, and came out into a room with a similar layout as our living room back home. There was even a kitchen in the back.

A blind, white duck immediately walked into the room. She seemed relieved that we were there, and Nega ran up to her right away.

"How is she?" she asked.

"It hasn't started yet, and I've calmed her down a bit," the duck replied in a quiet, misty tone, "but it's only a matter of time." She looked over at us and said, "Oh, you found them! Great! Is everyone alright?"

"A broken arm, but other than that, they're fine," Nega replied for us. "Think you could fix that, Laela? I'm no good with medical stuff, and you're the only one who can figure out where Claire puts everything."

"Sure thing," she replied. "Rev, can you come with me?" I found it odd that she knew Rev was the one who was hurt, and that she seemed to know our names as well.

I didn't like the idea of Rev going alone with someone we had just seen for the first time a few seconds earlier who was part of some group that we barely knew, but they _did_ save our lives. If they wanted us dead, then we would have been by then. Rev followed the duck down a hall, and it was just the rest of us left standing in the room.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Laela. She's with us," Nega replied. "Take a seat and we'll start explaining." We all went into the living room and sat down. "So, where should I start?"

"_I_ for one would like to know exactly _who_ you guys are," Duck responded.

"Well... In our time, a.k.a. _now_, we're known as the L5, or Loonatics 5th generation."

"Whoa..." I breathed. The others had looks of shock on their faces as well. I could believe it, though; they were good fighters based on what we saw, and Celeste and Ceci were definitely _not_ the good guys.

"If you're shocked by that, then you'll really freak out when you hear this," Nega said. "Most of our team right now consists of most of your team's descendants."

That really shocked us. Duck's eyes and mouth were wide open, and Slam was staring at Nega in disbelief at first before quickly turning his attention to Buzz. Duck and I looked at him too with questioning glances, and he smiled and nodded his head in response. Slam seemed to be lost for words (not that anyone would've been able to understand him, anyway.)

"Wait a second... Is that duck that was here earlier...?" Duck began.

"Laela? Yup; she's your descendant," Nega replied.

"Wow... That's... Wow," Duck muttered.

"Do we all have descendants in your team?" I asked. She paused a moment, carefully thinking over her words, and spoke slowly when she replied, being careful of what she said.

"In previous generations, _some_ of your descendants chose _not_ to become part of the team. They usually came back in the next generation, though, and only two of your descendants were ever gone at one time. In this generation, Tech's descendant isn't here, and neither is yours, Lexi."

I thought that there was something she wasn't saying, and Duck apparently felt the same way.

"I have a feeling that you're not telling us something..." he said. Before Nega could answer him, though, Rev zipped in with Laela right behind him.

"Hey-guys-you'll-never-guess-but-Laela-and-Buzz-are-_our_-_descendants_-and-we-all-have-them-in-this-_future_-_version_-of-our-team-well-except-for-you-and-Tech-but-"

"_Rev_! We know!" I shouted in order for him to hear me over himself.

"I followed along with what you were saying and relayed it to him," Laela stated to a confused looking Nega.

"How did you do that?" Duck asked.

"I can see auras of people and objects, which includes how people are feeling. I was able to guess what Nega was telling you all based upon what feelings were coming from this room."

"Don't try to have her explain further," Nega asked in response to our confused expressions. "If you do, it will only lead to more confusion. Just roll with it."

"Oookay," I said. I noticed a metal cylinder on Rev's arm where it broke that I hadn't seen before. "Uh, Rev? What's that thing on your arm?"

"Oh-yeah-you-wouldn't-_believe_-the-technology-they-have-here-Laela-says-that-I-just-have-to-leave-my-arm-in-here-for-a-while-and-it'll-be-good-as-new!"

"I just wouldn't fly for a few days, though," Laela advised. "...Or weeks. I'm not sure... Just be careful."

"Got-it!"

"Sorry to interrupt," Duck said, "but I believe you were explaining why you weren't giving us the whole story?"

"Oh yeah," Nega said. "You're right; I'm not. But I need to be careful with what I _do_ tell you; if I say something I'm not supposed to, and you end up knowing about it _before_ it happens, bad things could happen."

"Bad things?" I repeated.

"Fading," Buzz stated. He didn't say anything else; I had a feeling that he was the strong, silent type.

"What's-fading?" Rev asked.

"When something is erased from time, it literally fades away. First from existence, then from records, and then from memory," Nega stated. "That's what Ceci and Celeste have been doing; going into the past and getting rid of the ancestors of our teammates, effectively erasing them from time. They got rid of one of us a few days ago. I'm sorry, but I can't remember..." She looked to Buzz and Laela for help.

"Star," Laela said. "Her nickname was Star. She was a... Cat? I'm not sure, either..."

"So, when Ceci came back to our time, she was trying to get rid of us to get rid of you?" I asked.

"Well, not me specifically," Nega stated. "My lineage can't be traced, along with one other guy. But everyone else... Yeah, they would disappear."

"How many of you are there?" Duck asked.

"Eight," Laela replied, pulling a picture frame off of a side table and showing it to us. I recognized Nega, Buzz, and Laela, but there was a silver wolf, a multicolored roadrunner, a lavender coyote, and two twin rabbits I couldn't recognize.

"The wolf is the other one who can't be traced. His name's Wolfe, and he's our leader," Nega explained.

"Is-that-roadrunner...?" Rev began.

"Yep. That's Claire; team doctor, techie, and you're descendant," Nega replied. Rev looked both shocked and mildly pleased at the same time."The rabbits are Donny and Mei, a.k.a. the twins. Do _not_ ask me to tell them apart! And then the last guy is Psycho."

"Psycho?" Duck repeated. "What kind of name is that?"

"He says that it's better than Leonard," Laela stated. "He is also... Sive's descendant."

That hit home for us. "So... He's going to fade?" I tentatively asked.

"Probably," Nega stated grimly.

"And what about the twins?" I asked.

"We're Ace's descendants," a voice replied from behind us. We turned around and saw one of the twins standing behind us. "So we're going to fade, too."

"Mei-" Laela began.

"I just wanted to make sure they were all okay," Mei explained. I wasn't sure what to say in that situation, so I just stayed quiet. "We're already down three for sure, possibly five, so I just wanted to make sure we wouldn't lose anyone else."

"Where _is_ everyone else?" Duck asked.

"Ceci accidentally sent them through a time portal like she did with you," Mei explained. "We have no idea when they are, but if they're not back by now... Well, it probably means they can't get back. If they could, why not reappear right as they disappeared?"

There was no arguing with that logic. I wasn't sure what to say at that point; it would've seemed kind of heartless to say anything about our own situation when theirs was just as bad, if not worse.

"...Well, we need to figure out how to get you guys back to your own time," Nega stated. The others nodded in agreement. "...Now how do we do it?"

"Are there time machines other than Ceci's?" I asked.

"Sort of..." I looked at Nega questioningly. "We have one, ourselves, but it's broken. We found it a while ago, and Claire's tried restoring it, but she hasn't gotten very far; it's pretty beat up. Other than that one and Ceci's, there aren't any more in existence, and I don't think anyone alive now knows enough about time travel technology to build another one."

"What does Ceci need a time machine for, anyway?" Duck asked. I gave him a that's-a-stupid-question look, so he rephrased it. "I mean, what do they plan on doing?"

"Right now, they just want us out of the picture," Mei stated. "Afterwards, I'm figuring the typical take-over-the-world stuff. Celeste has tried stuff like that in the past, but we've stopped her."

"How-did-Ceci-get-a-time-machine-anyways?" Rev asked.

"She's Fidel Chroniker's ancestor," Laela stated. "The big one that we have was passed through her family, and Ceci's genius parents made a portable version. Then they died, and Ceci got it all. She kept and is using the portable, but she threw out the large, inoperable original."

"And now she's managed to get rid of more than half of you?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Nega stated.

"So-if-you-guys-get-a-working-time-machine-you-can-go-back-in-time-and-stop-Ceci-and-Celeste-from-erasing-your-teammates-from-time?" Rev asked.

"Nope," Nega stated grimly. "Claire knows _way_ more about this than I do, but I'll give it a shot. So, it takes a few days for someone to fade away completely. Because it's not instantaneous from when someone's ancestors are killed or something, that means that the time stream has trouble catching up as it is. Claire said that if we go back and change something that was already altered by a time machine, the entire fabric of time could unravel, meaning that _everything_ gets erased. It might not, but we're not going to risk it. We don't even know who to help, anyways."

"So, if someone was killed in a way that involved use of a time machine, then there's nothing that can be done to save them?" I asked. When Rev suggested going back in time to save teammates, I hoped that we could go back to save Sive and Ace. It didn't look like that was going to happen, though.

"Pretty much," Laela replied sadly. "That's why we're really hoping that whenever they are, though, Wolfe and the others manage to get back to us."

I was having similar thoughts, when I noticed Rev yawn, and Duck follow suit. Slam looked pretty tired as well. It was then that I realized that we technically didn't get any sleep last night.

"You all seem very tired," Laela stated.

"I'll say; you look dead on your feet," Nega commented. "I'll take you to some guest rooms."

We followed her down to a hallway with a bunch of rooms. We each walked into a separate one, and the room I was in didn't have much other than a bed, but it was more than enough for me at that point. I walked in the room, closed the door, and collapsed on the bed.

**xoxoxoxox  
**_  
April 24, 2775  
_  
**Sive's POV**

It was early in the morning, around 7:00, and we were waiting outside of the door of the biggest lab building I had ever seen. Tech had called Chroniker at 6:00 (how he knew he'd be up then, I'll never know,) and Chroniker told us to come right over.

I was leaning against a wall, looking over the scenery. I could see the skyline, and the sun was just starting to peek over it. We hadn't gotten any sleep last night, and I felt it. I stifled a yawn, and no one noticed, except for Donny.

"Tired?" he asked.

"No shit, Sherlock," I snapped. He jumped and cowered behind Wolfe. Claire and Psycho laughed at him.

I learned that Donny was a prankster the hard way when he tried pranking Claire, and I got caught in the crossfire. She and I were making breakfast (at 4:30 AM,) and she had been trying to work the blender to make a shake recipe that had apparently been passed down for generations (I knew where it started from, though.) She opened the lid to take a look at it, and I came over to try and help, right as Donny plugged the blender back in. Claire and I were covered in the orange liquid, and Donny was in hysterics. Claire threatened to kill him, but he called her bluff. I threatened to zap him, and he tried calling my bluff, only I wasn't bluffing. He now had singed fur on one of his shoulders, was now absolutely terrified of me, and I had decided that I didn't like Donny much.

"Sive, _please_ don't kill Donny yet," Wolfe said halfheartedly, stepping around the teenager. "We _might_ need him for something later."

"I wasn't going to _kill_ him," I stated indifferently. "Just singe him around the edges." Everyone other than Donny laughed.

Then, the door to the lab opened, and an old man in a wheelchair happily greeted us. "Hello, Loonatics! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Thank you for seeing us so quickly, Dr. Chroniker," Tech said.

"Well, you sounded frazzled over the phone, so I thought it was important," Chroniker stated. "But what are we doing standing outside? Come in, come in!"

We all walked in, and I was surprised at how much advanced, technological stuff was inside. It was even more advanced than the stuff in Tech's lab, and that's saying something.

"I don't recognize a few of you..." Chroniker said as he looked over our group.

"Dis is Sive," Ace said. "She's with us nowadays."

"Pleased to meet you," Chroniker said as he shook my hand.

"The rest of them are why we're here," Tech stated. "Wolfe, do you want to explain?"

"Sure thing," Wolfe said. "You see, sir, we're not from around here. We're from around 160 years into the future."

That made Chroniker start. "Did you just say...?"

"Yes, I did."

"Dear lord... How did that happen?" Chroniker asked. Wolfe then went on to explain the Ceci and Celeste situation, but left out the part about Ceci being Chroniker's ancestor (they had explained all that and more to us earlier.) Ace also explained what happened to Lexi, Rev, Slam and Duck.

"Well, you _are_ in a predicament," Chroniker stated.

"That's why we've come to you," Tech said. "If you can't help us, no one can."

"Fortunately for you, I have just the thing," Chroniker stated. "You know how the time machine I have now works, correct?"

Wolfe and the others looked confused, so Tech gave a brief explanation. "It sends the user through time, but only mentally, and it only goes backwards one day. It leaves others with a sense of déjà vu, but only the user knows exactly what happened, and what's _going_ to happen."

"Oh-that-makes-sense-but-that's-not-going-to-help-us-much..." Claire stated.

"Precisely why I want to show you this," Chroniker said as he went towards a back room. We followed him in, and saw what looked like a wide arch in the center of the room hooked up to dozens of wires. "This is another time machine I've been working on for years now. It allows a person to fully travel through time, forward and back, and to just about any time."

"_Amazing_..." Tech and Claire said at the same time. Psycho, Donny, and I quietly laughed at them while the rest of us rolled our eyes. Chroniker seemed pleased, though.

"The only thing is that it's not finished, yet," he stated, "and I don't think I'll have it done for years to come; old age makes things difficult, you know. But, if I had your help..."

"I'm here to help," Tech stated.

"Ohh-me-too-this-is-gonna-be-soo-great-working-alongside-two-of-my-favorite-scientists!" she squealed. Psycho, Donny, and I laughed at her again while Tech and Chroniker stood by awkwardly.

"And then we can get home and send Lexi and the others back," Wolfe stated. "Then _we'll_ deal with Celeste and Ceci."

"Whoa, wait a second, doc," Ace said. "Ya do realize that we're comin' with ya, right?"

"What? No way!" Wolfe said. "There's no _way_ you guys are coming back with us! That could _seriously_ screw something up, and I can't-"

"Wolfe, _you_ haven't been able to deal with Celeste and Ceci on your own, and _we_ have a score to settle," I stated. "_You_ need all the help you can get, and _we're_ not _offering_ it, we're _saying_ you're getting our help whether you want it or not. Face it; you're stuck with us."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Ace stated.

Wolfe seemed like he wanted to argue, then he thought it over. Psycho, Donny, and Claire didn't say anything; they just waited to see what Wolfe would do. "...Fine."

"Now that that's settled, let's get to work," Tech said. He and Claire quickly looked over the machine and said, "There's a lot already done here, but I see why Chroniker wouldn't be able to finish it on his own in any reasonable time. With all of us together, though, and by that I mean Chroniker, Claire, and I, we can probably get it done in four or five days."

"I-think-we-should-start-by-finishing-the-assembly-of-the-arch," Claire stated.

"No, we should finish the programming in the computer first, then do the assembly," Tech stated smartly.

"I-think-it-would-be-better-to-do-the-assembly-first-because-if-we-have-a-problem-with-the-programming-we-won't-know-until-after-the-assebly's-done-and-then-and-it's-kind-of-hard-to-program-something-isn't-there-don't-you-think?," Claire shot back, starting to look a little annoyed.

"If we have a problem with the assembly, then we won't know until after the programming's done, and on top of that, if there's an issue with the programming and assembly matching up, we'll have to redo both of them, whereas if we program first, we know what to assemble," Tech asked smartly, looking equally irritated.

"Or-we-could-assemble-first-and-program-accordingly-meaning-that-we-don't-have-to-follow-guidelines-for-the-assembly."

"If we assemble first, then we'd have guidelines to follow for the programming, and with a time machine, we need it to do _exactly_ what we need it to do!"

This went on for a long time. It didn't take very long for Ace and Wolfe to go off somewhere to talk strategy, and Psycho and Donny left to go look around. I went into the neighboring room to call Zadavia; we agreed to call her when it wasn't the middle of the night, and I drew the short straw. I wasn't too keen on the idea of trying to explain the situation we were now in, but someone had to do it. I ended up having to go into another room, though; I could hear Tech and Claire arguing from there. I just hoped that they put aside their pride long enough to finish the time machine so we could help everyone else in the future.

**A/N: Everyone can get home now, yay! Okay, so the next chapter will be kinda filler-ish, but it's filler that I want there, so it's going to be there. And as for Tech and Claire's incessant arguing… I got the idea based off of a couple of my friends. When doing something smarty together, they always argue over each and every little thing. XD That one's for you guys!**

**R&R!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Guess who worked **_**really**_** hard in the Library during her free period to finish this chapter so she could get it up when she said she would? XD I promise, and I deliver! **

**Quick rant, though. I type these up as an email draft before copying and pasting them onto a word document, and my email **_**screwed this chapter up! **_**Seriously, it took me almost an **_**hour**_** to fix it! **

… **Anyways, next chapter's up later in the week. Probably Saturday or Sunday. **

_April 26, 2775_

**Tech's POV**

It was late at night; really late. Almost three AM late. And there was a huge thunderstorm raging outside. Claire and I were still working, though; we wanted to finish the time machine as quickly as possible, which meant late nights and short, infrequent breaks. Chroniker needed to rest more often, though; he was old, and couldn't go for as long as Claire and I could. We didn't work as fast without him there, but we still got the job done, just slower than we liked. We were getting pretty tired, ourselves, though, but it would've taken more than that to stop us.

The storm had started at around noon, and the power went out around two hours later, but not even that stopped us. We set up some bright, battery powered lights, Sive helped us power our tools, and we kept working.

Claire made an all-orange copy of herself (the other one was still blue and yellow,) and they were doing some fine-tuning on the assembly of the arch while I was programming everything into the computer. Sive was sitting on a box off to the side, holding multiple plugs in her hand; she was powering two tools at a time for the Claires, and the computers for me. She had stayed up with us to help while everyone else went to sleep, but I could tell that she was getting really tired.

We were almost done with the work by then; Claire would finish in the next couple of hours if Sive held out long enough, and I would probably be done later in the day, so long as we didn't run into any problems.

At that time, the blue and yellow Claire was standing on top of the arch using a power drill to refasten some of the wires, and the orange Claire was zipping between the two arms of the arch using a welder to put steel plates on to cover the wiring. Suddenly, their tools stopped working. I knew there was a problem when the computer I was working at started slowing down and the screen dimmed.

"Hey-Tech," the blue and yellow Claire called to me. I looked up and she nodded her head off to the left. I looked over and saw that Sive was nodding off, and therefore stopping sending energy to the electronics.

I walked over to her and gently shook her awake. She opened her eyes, drowsily looked up, then looked annoyed with herself when she realized what happened.

"Sorry about that," she said as she rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted, and really looked like she needed some sleep.

"Sive, you should rest," I advised. "You've been going for hours and probably won't be able to charge anything soon, anyways."

"Of course I can," she replied, snapping her fingers. Usually, when she snapped, her fingers would light up with electricity and create a slight buzzing noise. When she was worked up, she could even create sparks. That time, however, the light created was dim, and flickering. "...Okay, so maybe I _can't_."

"You shouldn't push yourself like that," I said. "You're going to end up hurting yourself."

"I know, I know," she replied dismissively. "I just... I don't want the others to get hurt or worse when there's nothing we could do to help them. The sooner this time machine is finished, the better."

Claire had explained the lag between the effects of a time machine and the time stream to us earlier, and what they could and couldn't do after something was altered by a time machine. Because Lexi, Slam, Rev, and Duck weren't supposed to be in the future, if they got hurt, there was nothing we could do to fix it. Sive was still really worried about them, just like the rest of us, but unlike the others, there was something she could do to help. I knew that she just wanted to get to the others as fast as possible before anything happened, and would do all in her power to do it. The problem was that I knew she would push her limits to the breaking point if she felt like it was necessary.

"We feel the same way, but we won't help anyone by pushing ourselves past our limits. You should get some rest. The power will probably be back soon, and if not... Well, I'm sure you're not the only one who could use a break right now, anyways." I looked over my shoulder and the Claires nodded in agreement.

"Hmm," Sive mumbled, thinking it over. "I just don't want you to lose time because of me."

"It's-not-you-it's-the-storm," one of the Claires said behind me, but I waved her off; she wasn't helping at all in that situation.

"If morning comes around and the power's not back yet, we'll wake you up," I lied. I had no intention of waking her up; like the rest of us, she hadn't slept much in the past few days. We all needed to sleep, but Sive also needed to recharge. "Seriously, Claire and I need to rest, too."

"Well… Alright, then," Sive said as she got up. She walked out of the room, and then it was just the Claires and I in the lab. I turned and saw that the blue and yellow Claire was messing with some wires in the arch while the orange Claire was messing with the internal wiring in the arms of the arch.

"Everything alright up there?" I asked the blue and yellow as I walked up to the arch.

"Oh-yeah-I'm-just-making-sure-all-of-the-wiring-is-done-correctly-before-I-finish-assembling this-part," the Claire explained.

"It-needs-to-be-all-right-for-when-we-have-power-again-because-if-it-isn't-then-we'll-have-a-lot of-problems-later-not-to-mention-lose-a-lot-of-time," the orange Claire explained as she adjusted her goggles. She reminded me of an insect when she wore them.

"As if we don't already have enough problems..." I muttered. "How far along are you?"

"I-probably-just-need-an-hour-or-two-more-and-then-I'll-be-done-how-about-you?" the orange Claire asked.

"I may need another day or two; there are a few glitches that are giving me a lot of trouble."

"Do-you-think-you'll-be-able-to-figure-them-out?" the blue and yellow Claire asked.

"I hope so. Most of them are just little glitches, but a few could cause problems. One of them... Well, that one is being particularly difficult; I haven't gotten anywhere with it, yet. If I can't figure it out..."

"Will-we-not-be-able-to-use-the-time-machine?" the blue and yellow Claire asked worriedly as she slid down the arch like a slide and landed in front of me.

"No, it'll still be safe for use. It's just that if I can't figure it out, we'll need to hurry up and finish this thing as soon as possible."

"Maybe-we-should've-kept-Sive-and-kept-working," Claire said as she merged back into one multicolored roadrunner. She started zipping around the lab, tidying up, even though it was a lost cause.

"Nah, trust me when I say that it's better to let her rest. If she overdoes it, she can't hold a charge for days. If the power doesn't come back soon, then we'll need her."

"Oh-yeah-I-get-it-I-remember-reading-about-that-in-her-file!"

"You have files on us?" I asked as I sat down at the inoperable computer.

"Of-course-we-do-we-have-files-on-all-of-the-previous-Loonatics-containing-almost-everything-we-know-about-them-although-I'm-sure-some-of-that-information-will-change-after-this-whole-episode," she stated.

"Let's just hope nothing important will change as a result."

"I-was-thinking-the-same-thing-but-if-we-finish-this-time-machine-then-we-have-one-less-thing-to-worry-about-and-we'll-probably-have-it-done-within-the-next-day-or-two-depending-on-how-early-we-start-tomorrow."

"Hopefully the power will come back soon, or we'll lose a lot of time."

"But-I-thought-you-said-we'd-wake-Sive-up-so-we-could-keep-working?"

"I only said that so she'd rest; she wouldn't have if she'd thought we'd lose time if she did. She doesn't know when to quit sometimes. It can be a good thing, but she could hurt herself one of these days."

"Does-she-do-it-often?"

"Only when the situation is really bad. I think it's a habit for her to do whatever it takes to fix the problem in those situations." Claire stopped moving and gave me a questioning glance as she propped her goggles back on her head. "A habit from when she was on the streets. Back then, it would have been life or death to get out of the situation; that's not always the case now, though."

"Oh-I-get-it-has-she-ever-actually-hurt-herself-before?"

"No, but she came close the first time we met," I stated as I pictured our first meeting in my head. One second, she was facing down Mastermind, and the next, Mastermind was defeated and Sive was unconscious on the ground. She was a little shaky on her feet the next day, but she couldn't hold a charge for almost a week afterward. "Plus, if we let her rest now, we'll save more time if the power doesn't come back."

"Why-do-I-have-a-feeling-that's-not-the-only-reason-you-want-her-to-rest-so-badly?" Claire asked slyly as she zipped over to me and leaned on the computer. She propped up her goggles on her forehead so she could see me better.

"Uh- w-well..." I started. I was not expecting that question, and I took a moment to think of an answer. "...I just worry about her sometimes, is all."

"Uh-huh," Claire said knowingly as she started walking away.

"What?" I asked after her.

"Oh-nothing," she replied. "It's-just-that-if-I-didn't-know-any-better-I'd-say-that-you-liked-Sive." I was dumbstruck by this, and she walked out of the room.

_Do I like her? ...No, of course not; we're just friends... And yet..._

**xoxoxoxox**

**Claire's POV**

I walked down the halls to my room feeling pleased with myself. I always felt pleased when I was playing matchmaker; it was a hobby of mine. Some people collected stamps, others made scrapbooks; I set people up with other people I thought were right for them. I was almost always right, too; I called it my sixth sense.

I had successfully played a part in getting half of the team in a relationship. I knew another set of twins that I introduced to Donny and Mei. They were just friends at the time, but it could easily turn into something more with the right push. I also gave extensive advice to and convinced Buzz to go after a girl he liked. Not to mention another one of my friends that I set up with Laela.

Psycho, on the other hand, was usually awkward around girls he didn't know well, but even so, I never saw someone who would be good for him. He always said that he was happy being single, but I kept my eye out, anyways.

Nega and Wolfe were another story. I never found anyone who I thought was remotely right for them, and it irked me that I couldn't. Nega was kind of anti-people in general, and Wolfe said that he didn't have time for a relationship. He didn't like my matchmaking much in general, either, so I didn't kill myself trying to find someone for either of them.

I turned a corner and was about to enter my room when a voice said behind me, "You shouldn't have done that."

I gave a loud "EEP" of surprise and spun around to see Wolfe leaning on the doorway behind me. He didn't look happy; his arms were crossed in front of him and he was scowling at me. Wolfe was scary when he was mad; he came in and yelled at Tech and I the first day we started working on the time machine, and he was the only thing that kept us from arguing and got us working.

"Wolfe-you-almost-gave-me-a-heart-attack!" I whispered angrily to him. I tried staying quiet to avoid waking anyone I didn't already wake up, as did Wolfe.

"You shouldn't have done that," he repeated. "You're going to end up really screwing something up."

"What?" I asked. I honestly wasn't sure what he was talking about; I didn't think he overheard my conversation with Tech, so I didn't know what I did to make him mad at me.

"I heard Sive go to bed, so I came to check on you and Tech. I heard everything."

_Oh crap._

"Claire, I've turned a blind eye in the past to your 'matchmaking,' but this is going too far. You could end up changing something important; something _really_important. How do you think Psycho would feel if he knew what you did?"

_He would probably throw me off of a moving train going across a bridge hundreds of feet over a shallow river with sharp rocks at the bottom._Psycho was violent if he was mad enough (hence the nickname 'Psycho.')

"Claire, I'm going to say this once; keep your nose out of other people's business," Wolfe ordered. "Especially if it concerns something that hasn't happened yet, and the people it will happen to."

I didn't want to admit it, but I knew he was right. Well, _mostly_right, anyways.

"And one other thing," he said as he started walking back to his room. "If I hear you saying something else you shouldn't, then we'll have a problem. Got it?"

I got it loud and clear; if I said anything, he would beat me to a pulp. I didn't have any intention to completely back down, though. If the situation was right, I was totally going to go for it again. I would just have to be careful.

**xoxoxoxox**

_April 26, 2939_

**Lexi's POV**

I slept like a log during our first couple of nights in the future, but once I reached a point where I wasn't about to fall asleep at any given moment of the day, I found that it was really difficult to fall asleep at night. All I could really do was fitfully rest in bed. I was unable to sleep that particular night, so I decided to wander around.

Laela had warned us not to look too closely at anything our first day there, just in case it was related to something that hadn't happened yet. We didn't want to screw anything up, so we listened to her. I figured that they wouldn't mind if I wandered around a bit, though.

After almost half an hour, I found the living room. The layout of individual rooms in their HQ was almost the same as ours, but the overall building was oddly maze-like. I wasn't sure where anything was at that point, or if I was going to be able to make it back to my room, but I didn't care that much. My mind was on other things.

We hadn't gotten much done since we met up with the L5. There was nothing we could think of doing that would be of any help to anyone, so we just sat around and waited. Nega and I were supposed to be the leaders, and we were both annoyed by the fact that there wasn't anything we could do. The best we could do was have Rev look at the time machine they had. He was no Tech, but he was still the smartest one there. Unfortunately, he wasn't even sure where to start.

I also still had Ace, Sive, and Tech on my mind, but we all knew that there was nothing we could do about that.

I passed by a table, and a picture frame caught my eye. I picked it up, and recognized a few faces right away. The entire team was there, the Loonatics, with a few people that I didn't recognize. Slam was off to the left with another Tasmanian devil that I didn't know. Rev was standing next to him, and he was with a bird that I also didn't know. Duck was standing in front of them with another duck I couldn't recognize. Sive and Tech were standing next to each other off to the right, and Ace and I were standing in the middle.

Before I could look too closely at any of the people I didn't know, someone walked up behind me and took the picture out of my hands. I quickly spun around and saw Nega standing behind me holding the picture to her chest so I couldn't see it.

"Oh, my gosh, you _scared_me!" I said after I let out the breath I was holding. I had been a little on-edge ever since we had the conversation about what Celeste was trying to do; anyone would be if they had a homicidal freak out to get them.

"Sorry, Nega replied, putting the picture back down on the table face down so I couldn't see it."_Please_tell me you didn't look closely at anyone on that you didn't recognize."

"I didn't," I responded. She had taken it out of my hands before I could get barely a glimpse of the people I didn't know. "Why?"

Nega thought about answering before replying. "...It's a picture showing the future... _Your_future, actually."

I kind of wished I had taken a closer look at the picture then, but I also didn't want to know at the same time. From what I could see, everyone was really happy in the picture, and I didn't want to ruin it for us by looking. It made me feel good, knowing that there was a time coming where we would be really happy like that. Then I remembered that the future in the picture didn't exist anymore, and my mood plummeted again.

"What are you doing up?" I asked Nega.

"Mei needed company. It's kind of weird how she hasn't even shown any symptoms of fading yet. Usually there's headaches, nausea, dizziness, heavy limbs... But even after almost three days; nothing. Honestly, she shouldn't be here right now, not that I'm complaining. The waiting-for-the-end is driving her insane, though."

I felt bad for Mei. She was really sweet, cute (in a kid kind of way,) shy at times, but fun when she was in the right mood. She was also tough as nails when anyone was around. Rev said that she reminded him of me, which made Buzz, Nega, Laela, and Mei freak out for a second. I wondered why, but there was no good way to ask. They probably wouldn't answer, anyways; they didn't answer a lot of our questions. I understood that it was to keep anything (or anyone,) else from fading, but it was still kind of annoying.

"So, why are you up?" Nega asked me after a moment.

"Can't sleep," I stated. "Too much on my mind."

"I hear you. This 'leader' thing is a lot harder than it looks... I now have a whole new respect for Wolfe, whenever he may be."

"Amen to that. Ace always knew what to do... I really miss him."

Nega had a sympathetic look on her face and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "It's hard to lose someone at first, but it gets better with time. Believe me when I say that I know."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Both of my parents died during eighth grade; plane crash. I was supposed to be on board, too, but I got sick and stayed home," she said as she stared off into space, deep in thought. "They weren't even my real parents; I was adopted. It happened so long ago, but it still kind of hurts to think about it. Now, though, I'm feeling all of that pain over again for Wolfe, Claire, Psycho, and Donny."

"What about all of the other teammates you've lost?"

"It's not the same; I can't remember them. I feel sad when I think of the fact that part of our team disappeared, but it doesn't _hurt_. When a teammate first disappears, and we still remember them, that hurts. But then they fade from memory, and it doesn't hurt anymore. I know that's how it'll be when Mei eventually fades, which just makes the waiting for it to happen harder. That feeling on top of the pain from just loosing half of our team in one sitting is a bit much to handle."

"We just have to make sure that Celeste and Ceci don't do it again," I said with a hard voice.

"Now if only we knew how," Nega said jokingly, but also solemnly at the same time.

I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something we could do, _anything_, but as always, I couldn't come up with a plan if my life depended on it. The sad part was that, in a way, it did.

"...I'm not ready to be leader..." I muttered solemnly.

"Neither am I," Nega said as she rubbed eyes.

Well, that was _one_ thing we had in common.

**A/N: Kida filler-ish, I know, but I **_**wanted**_** it here, so it's here. Why? Because I say so! XD Besides, it's better to have this here before rocketing right into the next chapter, which will be pretty epic. Just sayin'. But… On a bad note, I won't have much time to type on Thursday (eye doctor appointment with a good doctor with **_**horrible **_**receptionists! Seriously, my dad went there for his appointment a couple of weeks ago, and waited **_**two hours**_** before noticing that people who got there after him were going in before him! He walked up to ask the receptionist about it, who said that they **_**asked**_** to go in quickly, so they bumped them up! They just **_**assumed **_**that my dad had time!)**

…**Wow, two rants in one chapter. Before I start getting mad about something else (PANCAKES!) I'm going to stop typing and say to please R&R!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm not happy with myself. Why? Because I had this finished yesterday, didn't realize it, and got this up a day later than I wanted. I was typing out this chapter, and when I copy-pasted everything I had done on a word document, I realized that I had accidentally typed out a chapter and a half worth of writing. DX Well, the good news is that I'm almost done with the next chapter, and I'll probably have it up anytime between later today and Monday (I have a **_**lot**_** of homework this weekend, so I'm not sure when I'll have time to finish it.)**

**And if there's a lot of errors in this chapter, or if it doesn't seem like my best work… Please give me a break. I was typing this on my iTouch, at the eye doctor's office, after I had these weird drops put in my eyes that made me practically go blind… Yeah.**

_April 28, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

It was just a waiting game at that point. Chroniker, Tech, and Claire would be done at any time, so the rest of us just had to wait until they gave the word. We were all in a room that I supposed used to be a kitchen, but now had random technological odds and ends strewn about all over the place.

"This waiting is driving me _insane_!" Donny whined as he kicked their 'ball' back to Psycho. They were playing hacky-sack with a small, metal sphere that they found.

"Like it's not bugging the rest of us," Psycho countered as he kicked it back.

"What's the matter; missing your other half?" Wolfe jokingly teased.

"Well, duh! I'm never more than ten feet away from her, much less 100 _years_ away!" I had no idea who they were talking about, but I didn't feel like asking right then.

I was still really worried about Lexi, Rev, Slam, and Duck. Every minute that ticked by was another chance that something would happen to them that we couldn't stop. It was pretty obvious I was anxious; I was hugging one knee to my chest while my other foot was soundlessly tapping the ground.

"Relax, Sive," Ace said to me, making me jump. He had been silent that whole time; I could tell he was probably more worried than I was. He hardly ever showed it when he was worried, but I knew; he had been drumming his fingers on the table for more than an hour. "Dey'll be alright."

"Maybe you should take your own advice," I replied, nodding my head in the general direction of his hand.

"Wha-?" he began. Then he realized what he was doing, and abruptly pulled his hand off the table with a nervous laugh.

"I-finally-found-you!" Claire suddenly yelled as she zipped into the room. Wolfe, Ace, and I shot to our feet and Donny and Psycho abruptly ended their game. "Seriously-I've-been-looking-through-this-whole-building-for-like-15-minutes-I've-already-passed-this-room-like-4-times-anyways-come-on-it's-ready!"

Claire shot out of the room, and the rest of us followed. The time machine was on the other end of the building, but we still made it there in less than three minutes (Claire was already there by then, though.)

"Is it ready, doc?" Ace asked.

"Sort of," Tech replied, writing something down on a clipboard. "There's one glitch in the programming we can't figure out. We spent all of yesterday trying to fix it, but we haven't gotten anywhere with it, yet."

"This glitch prevents us from changing the target date of the time machine," Chroniker stated. "We can change the year, but not the month or the day."

"So-we-can't-go-back-home-to-the-day-we-left-like-we-planned," Claire explained. "We-can-spend-a-few-more-days-trying-to-fix-it-but-if-we-can't-then-that's-even-more-lost-time-so-we-want-to-know-if-we-should-stay-and-keep-trying-or-go-anyways."

We all looked to Ace and/or Wolfe; they were the leaders. They looked at each other, then thought a moment, weighing the options. It didn't take them long to reach a conclusion, though.

"Let's go," they said simultaneously.

"I think that's a good decision," Zadavia stated as her image appeared off to our right, making everyone other than Ace, Tech, and I jump. I didn't know that she could appear wherever she wanted, but it still didn't scare me like it did with the others.

"Who are you?" Donny asked.

Zadavia was about to answer him, but Claire beat him to it. "That's-Zadavia-_duh_-gosh-Donny-you-can-be-so-dumb-sometimes!"

"You must be Claire," Zadavia stated. "You look a lot like Rev. And you must be Donny. I've heard _a lot_ about you." Donny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly; I had been the only one to speak to Zadavia in the past few days, so he knew that whatever she heard about him probably wasn't anything good. He was right. "And then you're..."

"Psycho," Psycho filled in for her.

"Ah, yes. I see the resemblance." Psycho and I were standing right next to each other, so the similarities were pretty apparent. "Anyways, I, too, think it's a good idea to go on ahead instead of wait."

"Glad ta hear, Zadavia," Ace stated. "Callin' ta see us off?"

"Well, that, and I also wanted to know what you need me to do while you're gone."

"Oh- uh," Ace started. Zadavia usually told us what to do, not the other way around, so that threw Ace for a loop. "...Probably cover for us while we're gone. We don't want da bad guys knowin' we're out; it'll cause a city-wide crime-spree. Also, keep an eye out for Celeste and company."

"And what about me?" Chroniker asked.

"We'll need you to continue working on the time machine," Tech stated. "Try to figure out that glitch if you can. Also, in two weeks' time, open a portal to when we are. We should hopefully have this conflict resolved by then, and if we can't take Ceci's time machine, we'll need a way home."

"Sounds like a plan," Chroniker stated. "You all had better get going. I'll start it up."

We followed Tech and Claire to the arch while Chroniker went to the computer. He typed in a few things, and then a loud, mechanical whirring started coming from the arch. This went on for a few moments, until suddenly, a small flash of teal light formed in the center of the arch. It faded, then came back. That time, instead of fading away again, it grew until it almost absorbed the arch.

"I've got to warn you guys; time travel isn't pleasant," Wolfe said to Ace, Tech, and I.

"Any suggestions?" I asked.

"Hold your breath." Wolfe walked into the light, and disappeared from view.

"Last one in's a rotten egg!" Donny yelled as he ran into the light after Wolfe. Psycho followed him.

"I'll-go-last," Claire said, stepping behind the rest of us.

We looked at each other, then back to the light, unsure of what to expect. None of us wanted to go first. Tech and Ace looked at each other for a moment, then looked to me. They were about to say something to me, but I read their minds.

"If you say 'ladies first,' I'll kill you." Claire laughed behind us.

"Well, it's now or never," Ace said after a moment as he stepped forward.

"Ace!" Zadavia called before he disappeared. "Bring them home safe."

"Will do, Zadavia," Ace said as he stepped into the light.

"See you," Tech said as he stepped in and disappeared.

"Hasta la vista," I said behind me as I quickly went into the light.

It was really bright, and windy, which was strange due to the fact that there was no air. It felt like I was falling endlessly, but other than the no-air part, it wasn't that bad. The landing was the worst part.

Suddenly, the light faded, and I landed hard on my feet. I stumbled and almost fell, but Tech caught me and helped me back on my feet.

"Thanks," I said to him as I looked around.

We were in the middle of an empty lot a ways away from any other buildings. There were a few metal bars, chunks of concrete, and other debris around that suggested there used to be a building there. There was a city skyline in the distance, but it didn't look anything like Acmetropolis.

"That wasn't that bad," I said to Wolfe.

"It was different from Ceci's," he replied. "I don't know why."

"Where are we?" Ace asked.

"Home!" Donny yelled, collapsing and trying his best to hug the concrete.

"You live on an empty lot?" I asked sarcastically.

"I-think-this-is-where-Chroniker's-lab-used-to-be..." Claire stated as she landed on the ground behind us and looked around. The portal abruptly closed behind her.

"Is anyone else creeped out by that, or is it just me?" I asked. Ace and Tech nodded in agreement.

"We don't have time to look around," Wolfe stated. "We need to get back to HQ. _Now_."

Wolfe, Claire, Psycho, and Donny ran off, and Ace, Tech, and I followed behind them.

_Don't worry, guys. We're coming._

**xoxoxoxox******

_April 28, 2939_****

Lexi's POV

It had been a tough few days. We were just sitting around, waiting for something to happen; there was nothing else we could think of doing.

I was thinking over our situation in a hallway while everyone else was somewhere else doing something else. I was in a pretty bad mood, and I thought I was alone, until Nega walked into the hallway I was in.

"I wondered where you got to," she said.

"Well, here I am."

"What's up?" she asked. "You seem a little... Out of it."

I have no idea why, but I just exploded at her. "Well, excuse me, but the world as I knew it just fell apart in one day, and there's nothing I can do about it! My boyfriend and team leader is dead, along with my best friend, and another one of my closest friends is stuck alone in our time wondering what the _hell_ happened to us! And now Rev, Slam, Duck, and I are stuck _here_, and they're relying on _me_ to be the leader! I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility!" The stress of the situation seemed to hit me all at once, so I ended up letting it out in one big explosion. I immediately felt bad about it afterward, though, and I was worried that Nega would be mad at me for it.

Nega was silent for a moment before calmly asking, "Feel better?"

That was the last thing I was expecting from her. "Uh... Yeah, I do, actually."

"I did the same thing earlier," Nega stated. "Buzz was my punching bag."

"The stress of all this... It's driving me insane..." I said as I rubbed my eyes. "I'm going to have grey hair before I hit 35 at this rate."

"I was having the same thoughts, only I'm not sure if I can go grey," Nega stated. I gave her a questioning look. "I got my powers from this weird accident that happened in high school. It's also why I look like this. It was really unnatural, and the effects so far have been permanent."

"What happened?"

"I, ah, don't like talking about it much... I'm not complaining about the powers, though; they make me strong enough to fight Celeste. Wolfe and I were the only ones skilled enough to stand up to her in a fight, but now that he's gone, it's up to me. I don't think I'll ever be able to actually win a fight against her."

"But back in the park-"

"That wasn't _winning_, that was holding her back long enough for the situation to turn in our favor, making her annoyed enough to leave. I've never actually _beaten_ her in a fight before... I just can't do anything right."

"Oh, come on, that's not true."

"I've been fighting against the same people for years for varying reasons, I haven't beaten them once, they've beaten us multiple times, and I can't even use my powers right for Christ's sake!" I gave her another questioning look, and she realized that she hadn't told me all about her powers. "I think I can rewind time for myself, but it hardly ever works, and the best I've ever been able to do is slow it down. I've never been able to do anything right..."

"Hey, you did something right when you saved Rev, Slam, Duck, and I, and I'm sure everyone else here agrees." That cheered her up a bit. I stood still and rubbed my head for a moment.

"You alright?" Nega asked.

"Yeah, I just have a headache," I replied. "I think I'm going to go get some fresh air."

"Need help finding your way out?"

"No, thanks; I'm good," I said as I started walking away. I needed some alone-time, anyways.

I wandered around for probably 45 minutes before finding my way outside. I wouldn't normally have taken that long, even in that maze-like building, but my mind was in a fog. I was still trying to make sense of a few things, but it wasn't easy.

I stepped outside and took in a deep breath. It was completely silent right there, but I could hear noises in the distance. The building was on a quiet street, and there was no one around at that time of day.

At least, I _thought_ there was no one around. I was in more of a fog than I thought, because I should have heard the person sneaking up on me before she actually started speaking.

"Hello, Lexi," said the familiar, silky-smooth voice behind me.

I whipped around, and saw Celeste floating a few feet off the ground a ways away from me. She looked pleased with herself, and I got worried. It wasn't like I could call for help; the nearest people around were the team around 150 or so floors above us. Unless they realized what was going on, I was screwed.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Nega's POV****  
**  
After Lexi walked away, I went back up to the living room. Everyone else was in there, even Mei. Laela was staring intently out the window, Buzz and Slam were arm wrestling (even though they did it before, and Slam always won,) and Duck, Rev, and Mei were talking on the couch.

Rev saw me walk in, and he asked, "There-you-are-did-you-find-Lexi-how-is-she?"

"Yes, I did, and she's stressed out," I replied. "This is a lot for her to handle. This is a lot for _all_ of us to handle."

"At least you're in your own time," Duck said bitterly. He wasn't reacting well to the situation, either, but from what I remembered hearing about him from the stories about the original Loonatics, he was usually like that in bad situations.

"Where's Lexi?" Mei asked.

"She went outside to get some fresh air."

Just then, Laela sharply took in a breath. She was staring unblinkingly at the ground, which she always did, but she had a nervous, almost scared expression on her usually stoic face. That was more than enough to get me nervous.

"Laela, what is it?" I asked urgently as I approached her.

She ignored me, though, and turned to the others. "Rev, where is Lexi right now?" she asked urgently. She had a tone in her voice; that meant that whatever was going on, it was really bad.

Rev's eyes glowed, and he stood still as his GPS or whatever it was worked. "Gimme-a-minute-here-I'm-not-familiar-with-these-surroundings-yet-well-she's-not-in-the-building-and-oh-there-she-is-wait-a-second-someone's-with-her-oh-my-gosh-is-that-I-think-it-is-it's-Celeste!"

That made everyone jump to their feet with a mixture of worry and fear on their faces.

"Rev, where are they?" I asked.

"Outside-the-main-entrance!"

"Okay, you run ahead of us, and try not to get lost or killed." He ran down the hall, trailing flames behind him. "Everyone else, follow me!"

I ran down the hall with everyone else in tow. For a short while, we were following the trail of soot left behind by Rev, until it veered down a wrong turn. I knew the building was hard to navigate, but this was _ridiculous_!

_I just hope he finds his way out,_ I thought. _I also _really_ hope nothing bad happens to Lexi_.

**A/N: Yeah, I know it's short, but I had nowhere else I could make the end-of-chapter-mark that would make sense, and if I kept going, it would be **_**way**_** too long. So, expect the next chapter in the near future. R&R!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: You guys should have seen me on Saturday; I was **_**freaking out.**_** I posted the last chapter on Saturday morning, and when it didn't upload, I tried logging in to see what was up later in the day, **_**and it wouldn't let me!**_** I don't usually panic about anything, but I was a little scary to be around through Saturday and Sunday morning before the site fixed itself. So, just so everyone knows… I DID get my last chapter up when I said I would, there was just some technical difficulties between it coming from me and getting to you.**

**Anyways… I already have the next chapter done (needless to say, I was **_**really**_** bored this weekend!) so I'll be able to get it up whenever I want. Which probably won't be until… A week from now at most. DX In my defense, I have one cousin's 1****st**** birthday party this weekend, another one next weekend (they're the cutest kids EVER!) and then the next weekend, I'm going to a state level competition about five hours away from where I live. So, I'm pretty booked up. I'll still try for my 1-chapter-per-week schedule by not posting one chapter until I have the next one done so I can guarantee the next one, and if I can't, I will not be happy with myself.**

_April 28, 2939 _

**Lexi's POV**

"What do you want?" I asked as Celeste flew closer to the ground, but still floated a few inches in the air.

"I want all of you dead," she stated matter-of-factly, "but I can't do it in one fell swoop; there are too many of you! So, I'm going to get you all in small groups and/or one-by-one. I don't _need_ to get you anymore, but you will get in the way, so you'll just be a... Practice run."

I wondered what she meant when she said she 'didn't need to get me anymore,' but I didn't have time to think about it. She raised her hand and fired a black beam at me, so I jumped back onto my hands and back again as she fired again so I landed on my feet. I stared in horror at the two craters in the sidewalk where her blasts hit. Sure, she was strong during our first meeting, but she didn't make craters three feet deep in solid concrete!

"Surprised?" Celeste asked smugly. "I was just taking it easy on you back in the park. Now that I know what you're capable of, I'm not holding back!"

She fired a wide-range blast at me, and I had to dive and roll back onto my feet to get out of the way in time. I turned quickly so I could fire a brain blast at her, but she was gone.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp kick to my back, and I went flying forward. I landed on my chest, but I flipped back up to my feet and spun around. No one was there.

I felt another sharp kick to my back, and as I got up and turned around, no one was there again. I stood still for a moment, and listened closely to everything around me. I just barely heard something moving behind me, so I firmly planted one foot in the ground, and spun around quickly to roundhouse kick whoever was behind me. Celeste dodged back, and fired a short, explosive blast, but I ran off to the side, so she missed by a mile.

She apparently moved quicker than I thought, though, because before I could move ten steps, she fired another short blast at me, and it hit me head-on. I was sent flying forward, and landed hard. It hurt, _a lot_.

I was dazed from the impact, but when my vision cleared, I saw Celeste standing, or, rather, floating a few feet in front of me, gathering black energy around her hand.

"This was _too_ easy!" she exclaimed. "I expected more from the great Lexi Bunny. No matter; I'll get rid of you now and be done here!"

She raised her hand to fire, and I didn't have time to get up and move out of the way. I thought that was the end, until I heard a voice; a voice I never thought I would hear again.

"_LEXI_!" the voice with the Brooklyn accent that I loved so much yelled. It was more than enough to catch Celeste's attention. She turned just in time to see a laser blast, but not in enough time to move out of the way. She was sent flying backward, and I just sat there in shocked silence as a person ran into view; a person I thought I would never see again.

Ace ran up to me with an almost terrified expression on his face, knelt down so he was facing me, and clasped my shoulders. "Lexi, are you alright?" he asked softly. I tried answering him, but I was too shocked to speak, so my mouth wordlessly moved.

"Duck!" another voice I never thought I would hear again yelled behind us. Ace ducked even lower than he already was as a small, glowing sphere went flying past his head. It kept going until it hit Celeste, who was just getting back up on her feet. It exploded with a flash of light and a crack of thunder upon impact with her as she tried flying away, and she was sent flying upward. She regained herself in midair and stared in horror at something behind me.

I turned to look, and saw Sive charging up another electricity orb, with Tech running next to her. Four other anthros were with them, and I recognized them from the picture of the L5 Laela had shown us.

"Ceci can't do _anything_ right!" I heard Celeste say under her breath.

"What's the matter, Celeste? Surprised to see us?" the lavender coyote asked tauntingly as he ran up with the rest of the group.

"Surprised to see _you_? I think she's more surprised to see _us_," Sive commented, tossing the orb from one hand to the other.

"How are you still alive?" Celeste asked. "And how did you get here?"

"We had some help from a friend," Tech stated smugly, ignoring her first question.

Just then, the doors to the L5's HQ burst open, and Rev came running out, with the others not far behind. They all stopped in their tracks when they saw Ace and the others, though.

"All of them... Together..." Celeste muttered, staring at the two groups. She was so quiet, I knew I was the only one who could hear her. "This isn't good... This will ruin everything! I'll need to come up with a new plan..."

I stopped using my super hearing as Sive threw the electricity orb at her so I wasn't deafened. Celeste dodged easily, and the orb exploded on the ground behind her. She quickly made her escape over the buildings.

"Coward," Sive spat in the general direction Celeste took off in.

"She always does that," Wolfe said.

"Lex..." Ace said softly, regaining my attention. I turned to him, and he was still staring at me with worry etched on his face. I slowly stood up, and he stood up with me.

I finally managed to find my voice to respond to him. All I managed to choke out, though, was, "You're... _Alive_?"

He smiled, and wordlessly wrapped me in a tight hug. I was still so shocked by this; I had thought that I would never see him again, but there we were, wrapped in each other's arms. I started crying out of sheer joy, and I knew that I never wanted that moment to end.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

"They-are-so-_cute_-together!" Claire quietly said to me.

"I told you they are," I replied. I turned to look at the others and saw that Rev, Duck, Slam, and the rest of the L5 were still standing rooted to the ground, staring at us with shocked looks.

Rev was the first to react. "You're-alive!" he yelled, running to us as fast as possible and attack-hugging the person closest to him, who in this case was Tech.

"Glad to see you're alright, too, Rev," Tech replied, returning the hug. They were best friends, and I knew Tech had been worried about him. "We reviewed the security recordings from the roof, and it looked like one of those shadow walkers broke your arm. I was really worried."

"It-did-break-my-arm-but-with-the-technology-they-have-here-I-was-all-fixed-up-after-less-than-two-days-I-just-can't-fly-yet."

They started speaking technological jargon that I couldn't understand, so I turned my attention from them to Wolfe and a purple fox, who was most likely Nega (Wolfe had told us about her unique appearance, so she was pretty easy to identify.)

"Thank _God_ you're back," Nega said as she gave him a quick hug. "I would _never_ have been able to be leader. How _did_ you get back, anyway?"

"You know Dr. Chroniker? We helped him finish a time machine, and he helped us get back," Wolfe explained. "We would have come back the day we left, but long story short, there was a glitch, and we couldn't do it without risking losing more time. Thankfully, we got here just in time to prevent anything really bad happening... How's Mei been?"

"Freaking out, but she's probably better now," Nega replied, looking over behind me.

"So, what have you told them?" Wolfe asked.

"Don't worry; I've been careful with what I've been saying." They started talking quietly, so I averted my attention elsewhere.

Claire and Psycho happily greeted a duck, but my attention was focused on what was going on behind them. From what I saw, Donny ran up to another Donny, they hugged each other, and started excitedly talking.

"Oh, no!" I moaned. "There are _two_ of them now!"

"Nah, that's just Mei," Psycho stated dismissively.

"Did-we-forget-to-mention-that-Donny-was-a-twin?" Claire asked.

"Uh, _yeah_!" I replied.

"Don't-worry-about-it-Mei-goes-along-with-whatever-Donny-does-it's-just-him-you-have-to-look-out-for-Mei's-usually-pretty-cool."

"Okay, then."

I heard someone quickly approach behind me and yell, "Sive-you're-alive-too!" And before I knew it, Rev had wrapped me in a tight hug. The only problem was that he ended up pinning my arms to my sides because I wasn't expecting it, and that _hurt_. I ended up crying out in pain, and Rev quickly let me go.

"Sorry," I said as I rubbed my arms. "That just _hurt_."

"What happened to you?" Duck asked as he approached us. I rolled up my sleeve and showed them my still-bandaged arm from the fight we had with Wolfe, Donny, Claire, and Psycho. It wasn't a bad injury anymore, but it still hurt if pressure was applied.

"How-did-_that_-happen?" Rev asked. I glared at the twins (I had no idea which one was Donny at that point,) and one of them cowered behind the other, who looked really confused.

"It's a miracle!" Wolfe exclaimed sarcastically as he walked up to us. "We _finally_ have a way to tell them apart!"

The L5 laughed, including Mei. The rest of us didn't get the joke.

I turned and saw Ace and Lexi finally part. She turned, saw me, said something to Ace, and ran over. We hugged each other tightly (and I was careful to avoid letting Lexi hurt my arms.)

"I thought you were dead," she whispered.

"Oh, come on, Lexi! It takes more than a 150 story fall to get rid of _me_," I replied. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she replied as she let me go. "How did you guys survive?"

"We'll explain later. I think we all have some catching up to do," I replied.

"So, are you guys all in one piece?" Ace asked as he and approached.

"We're-all-okay-and-hey-wait-a-second-where's-Slam?" Rev asked as he noticed the Tasmanian devil's disappearance. I saw him when they first came out, but I had lost track of him afterward.

We got our answer a second later when Slam snuck up on us and gave Ace, Tech, and I a really tight hug... All at the same time. It was pretty painful for my arms, so I had to phase out of his grip.

"Ow..." I muttered as I rubbed my arms.

"Slam... Air..." Tech choked out. Slam put them down, and they both took a deep breath.

We finished up with the heartfelt hellos, and then went back up to the L5's HQ to catch each other up.

"So, how _did_ you guys survive the fall off the building?" a twin asked once we got there. "I'm Mei, by the way; Donny's twin."

"Tech caught us on a pipe with his magnetism, and I phased us through a wall," I explained. "Then _these_ guys showed up a few hours later!"

"Ceci's portal opened up in their HQ," Wolfe explained. "We met up with these guys pretty quickly afterwards."

"But then how did you get _here_?" Nega asked.

"We went to Dr. Chroniker, a scientist specializing in anything and everything that has to do with time," Tech explained. "Fortunately for us, Chroniker already had a time machine almost completely finished. We helped him finish it, and here we are. He'll also be helping us get back to our own time."

"So, what happened to you guys after we left?" Psycho asked.

"We went looking for them," Nega replied, jabbing her thumb at Lexi, Rev, Slam, and Duck. "Celeste ended up finding them first, but Buzz got there before anything particularly bad happened. I arrived not long after he did."

"We've been hanging out here ever since," Lexi stated. "We haven't been able to come up with anything we could do to help our situation, though."

"De first thing we should do is try ta restore dat other time machine ya told me about, Wolfe," Ace stated. "It'll be handy ta have a time machine of our own we can use."

"Wait a second," Duck said. "Why didn't we just go back to Chroniker's and use his?"

"Because eventually, Celeste would be able to trace our time traveling to Chroniker," Tech explained. "We didn't want to put him in any danger, or give her another excuse to go into the past for anything. Now that we're all here, that shouldn't happen anymore."

"I really hope you're right..." a twin muttered under his/her breath. I now realized why Wolfe was so happy to have a way to tell them apart.

"And until that's done, there's nothing else we can do other than mess with Celeste when she comes out of hiding," Wolfe stated. "Claire, how quickly can you get it done?"

"Well-now-that-I've-seen-a-completed-working-version-of-essentially-the-same-thing-and-with-Tech's-help-we-can-probably-finish-in-around-a-week," Claire said. "Oh-and-Sive-we'll-need-to-borrow-you-again."

"Got it," I replied.

"Okay," Tech said as he stood up. "Let's get to work."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Celeste's POV**

I walked into my base and plopped down into a chair. I wasn't in a particularly good mood, and I wanted to fume over the situation my 'partner' got me into.

"Celeste!" an annoying, high-pitched voice called.

_Speak of the devil..._

Ceci flew into the room and lightly landed on the ground next to me. "How did it go? Did you get any of them?" she asked excitedly, making me inwardly cringe. Her voice grated against my ears, and I could never hear her say three words without getting a headache. The problem was; _she never shut up!_

"No, I did _not_ get any of them," I replied through gritted teeth. "And thanks to _you_, we now have _seven more of them_ to deal with!"

She thought a moment, trying to do the math, before answering. "There are 23 of them?"

I angrily groaned and held my head in my hands. Ceci was a technological genius when she put her mind to it, which was the only reason I kept her around, but most of the time, she was a big moron.

"_No_, Ceci!" I snapped at her. "There are fifteen of them! _Fif-teen_!"

"Oh..." she said as she thought over her math again. She shrugged, completely unfazed, and asked, "How did that happen?"

"_You_ happened!" I yelled at her. "You didn't kill any of the original Loonatics, and you were too stupid to change the settings on the time machine, so you ended up sending half of the L5 _right to them_! Now, the two teams are all together working against us, and we haven't gotten any closer to getting rid of them and achieving our goal!"

"Oh..." Ceci said. "...Well, we'll figure something out. We always do." As usual, my anger totally bounced off of her.

"_'We'_? What _'we'_?" I asked. I was always the one who figured out what she should do; she just did what I told her to and followed me around like a shadow, as always, which was ironic considering the fact that I was almost a shadow myself.

"Well, what should we do now?" Ceci asked. "We can't get closer to our goal while the L5 and now the original Loonatics hanging around."

I ignored her remark and started thinking. What I wanted was control; originally, my plan was to start with the city of Acmetropolis, then think bigger. The L5 of course got in my way, as I knew they would, but I underestimated them. There were just short of twenty members at first, so I knew I had to do something to get rid of them. Nothing I tried worked, though.

Then I remembered Ceci, a 'friend' of mine from high school. I remembered that her parents were the descendants of Fidel Chroniker, and I had read somewhere that they made a portable version of one of Chroniker's original time machines. I knew her parents had died a while ago, so I called her up to see if she still had the time machine. I was thinking big; time travel big. Fortunately for me, Ceci did still have the time machine, and all I had to do was promise her power once I had control of the city. I had no intention of following through with that, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her._ Yet._

I could've gone to a different time to get rid of other ancestors of the L5, but that could've potentially caused time to unravel. The more different times we went to, the more fragile the time stream became. I didn't want to risk destroying everything; there would be no gain for me to do that. I risked it going against the Loonatics, and I lost. Big time.

That's when an idea hit me. _If the L5 have teamed up with their descendants, _I thought,_ then maybe I should team up with mine._

**A/N: 10****th**** CHAPTER! WOO-HOO! …Okay, so, the next chapter will be up soon-ish, and until then, R&R!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Well **_**this**_** is earlier than I expected! …Anyways, yes it's short, but the second part is the only important part, and I didn't want to go any further than that, and then the first part is just filler! Not filler-ish, like I've done before, this is just plain filler. I needed something to be there, so there it is. Anyways, next chapter is up… When I can get it up. (Thanks Science teacher for giving me 3 different assignments and a project due Monday.) B(**

_April 28, 2939_

**Sive's POV**

Tech was staring in mild shock at the time machine Claire had in her lab. It vaguely resembled the arch we used to get there, only it was rusted, broken in half, and lots of parts were missing.

"This... Is..." Tech began.

"I-think-it-was-once-an-upgraded-version-of-the-arch-we-built-with-Chroniker," Claire stated. "But-time-definitely-took-its-toll-on-this-thing."

"Well... Let's start with the parts we need," Tech said, getting over his shock. I was shocked, too, but for a different reason; we had seen almost the same machine a few hours ago in perfect working order, but now it was falling to pieces and rusting away. "What's missing, and what needs to be replaced?"

Claire proceeded to prattle off a long list of parts, most of which I couldn't identify, so I stopped listening and started to inspect the machine for myself. It was pretty messed up, but there was only piece I couldn't recognize from the one Tech, Claire, and Chroniker had just built; the plug was a design I had never seen before. I knew there were different types all over the world, but I had never heard of anything like that one.

"I-see-you've-already-found-one-problem," Claire said as she zipped over to me. Tech followed and examined the plug. "That-plug-isn't-compatible-with-our-electricity-current-anymore-and-trying-to-replace-it-with-a-current-one-could-end-up-killing-the-power-circulation-to-the-machine."

"So that's why I'm here," I said.

"Exactly," Claire replied. "We-can-get-a-bunch-of-the-parts-we-need-at-stores-around-here-but-we'll-have-to-totally-rebuild-some-of-them-and-I-was-thinking-we-could-get-Psycho's-help-with-that-he-can-build-almost-anything-if-I-tell-him-how-so-he'll-be-a-big-help."

"Rev would probably come in handy here, too," Tech stated. "He watches me work all the time, and helps sometimes, too, so he'll know what he's doing. I'll go upstairs and grab them. Be right back."

Tech left, and it was just Claire and I left. It didn't take very long for Lexi to walk in with one of the twins, though.

"How's it going?" Mei asked.

"Well-with-all-of-the-extra-help-we'll-probably-have-it-done-in-less-than-a-week," Claire stated.

"You guys left before I could tell you something important," Lexi stated. "After you guys got there and saved me, Celeste said something that's got Wolfe and Ace a little worried. Not that either one is showing it..."

"What did she say?" I asked.

"She said that since we're all together now, she needed to come up with a 'new plan.' We're not sure what she's got in mind, but it can't be anything good."

"Hmm..." Claire mumbled, obviously trying to think of what Celeste was planning.

"Wolfe wants you guys to check in with him later," Lexi said. "I'm going back upstairs. If you guys need anything, just yell. I'll hear you."

Lexi walked out, but Mei stayed behind. She looked like she wanted to ask us something, but was nervous about it.

"Mei-is-something-wrong?" Claire asked concernedly.

"Well... It's just..." Mei couldn't seem to find her words. "...With this time machine, will we be able to keep Celeste from making anyone else fade?"

"That's the general idea," I replied.

"Why-do-you-ask?" Claire asked.

"It's just... I was so scared when I thought I was going to fade, and I ended up feeling like that all the time for _days_. I don't want to have to go through that again... No one should have to go through that."

"Mei-have-you-told-Donny-about-this?" Claire asked.

"No, but he said that he could feel that I was anxious, even though we were far apart."

I could tell by the look Claire gave me that meant that Mei wasn't just scared; she was terrified. I was able to infer that she was the type who told her twin brother everything, so this was probably a big deal.

"Don't worry, Mei," Claire said slowly and deliberately. "So long as we're around, she isn't going to do that to anyone ever again."

_Poor Mei, _I thought as she left the room_. She's just a kid; barely old enough to be doing a job like this. She's been through so much... I hope we can keep that promise.  
_  
**xoxoxoxox**

_May 2, 2775_  
**  
Black Velvet's POV  
**  
It was a dark, stormy day; a kind of day I would have liked if the lightning didn't hurt my eyes. I was hiding out in a windowless room of my base. After my first encounter with the Loonatics, my zeppelin was destroyed, and I had to find a new base of operations. At that time, I was hiding in plain sight; I had bought an old apartment building under an assumed name, and did extensive renovations. It served my needs well.

I was still brooding over my recent loss against the Loonatics. Now that the bio-converter had been moved to an undisclosed, safe location, I had to come up with an entirely new scheme. My old one revolved almost entirely around getting the converter, and now that it was gone, I had to come up with something new.

Suddenly, a strange static sound filled the room. I thought it was some of my equipment malfunctioning, but I knew the cause came from somewhere else when a bright, white light filled the room. I personally made sure there was nothing that lit up anywhere in the building. It made my head hurt and my eyes burn, and I ducked under my cloak to avoid it.

When the sound faded, I peeked out from under my cloak to check and see if the light was gone, and I fully came out from under my cloak when I realized it was. It was pitch black in the room again, but I could see in the dark. At least one of the two people that appeared in the room evidently couldn't, though.

"It's _dark_ in here," the one dressed like a lemon with blue highlights complained in an annoying voice that grated against my ears. "Can I turn on a flashlight?"

"_No_, Ceci!" the other one snapped at her. She was wearing a cloak, so I couldn't see her.

"But how are we going to find her if we can't see where we're going?" the annoying one, Ceci, asked.

"_I_ can see in the dark, you _moron_!" the other one snapped. I had no idea who she was, but I liked her already. "I've already told you this _multiple_ _times_!"

I decided it was time to figure out who these two were, so I walked to a place where the one who could see in the dark could see me and asked, "Can I help you?"

Ceci screamed and dove behind the other one, who at first took a defensive stance, then relaxed when she realized who I was. "Actually, you can. And _we_ can help _you_."

"With _what_, exactly?" I asked. Ceci peeked around her friend and wildly looked around, even though she couldn't see anything.

"We know you're after the bio-converter," the cloaked one stated. "We can help you get it. In turn, we'd like your help with something."

"How do you think you can help me get it?" I asked skeptically. "No one other than the government knows where it is now."

"We could go back to a time when we know where it is..." the cloaked one began slyly.

"Who _are_ you?" I asked.

"My name is Celeste. I'm your descendant from around 160 years into the future. And this is my... _Accomplice_, Ceci. She has a time machine."

Celeste pulled Ceci out from behind her, and pulled one of her arms out in front of her so I could see it. It had an advanced looking gauntlet on it. Then, Celeste took the hood of her cloak off.

I was a bit shocked at this, but I believed her; there was _definitely_ some family resemblance.

"So my... _Disfigurement_, passed on through the family?" I asked.

"No, it didn't," Celeste stated. "I was disfigured through a freak accident. The fact that it was in almost the exact same way as you is purely coincidence. I have almost the same powers as you, too."

"Interesting..." I said. "So, what did you have in mind?"

**A/N: Next chapter has an interesting twist! Something to look forward to for… Probably Monday or Tuesday, because I can guarantee I won't have enough time to get the next chapter up this weekend. R&R!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: …I have an excuse! …Somewhere during my 5 assignments from Science class and other assorted things from all of my other classes, I think I died. So, that's why I didn't get this up sooner.**

**Good news is that I have spring break, part II starting Thursday! (Better known as Easter Break.) So, I'll get the next chapter up Thursday or Friday.**

**Anyways, this chapter has an interesting twist! Enjoy!**

_May 3, 2775_

**Celeste's POV**

We stayed with Velvet in the coming days, explaining our whole situation to her during that time. Once we had finally finished our explanation, we asked Velvet what she wanted with the bio-converter. She explained an extensive plan, and her reasons behind it, and it wasn't that bad of an idea.

"So, how exactly do you plan on getting the converter?" Velvet asked after telling us the whys and hows of her plan.

"Well, like I said, we have a time machine," I stated. "We'll use that to go back in time to when the converter is easiest to take. You know when that is better than I do, though."

"That would be when it was on the train, right after it left the city," Velvet said. "So, we can essentially go and get it whenever we want, right?"

"I think we should come up with a concrete battle plan first, but yeah," I replied. "And by helping you do this," I said to her quietly, "I'm helping myself get control of the city."

"How so?" Velvet asked.

"Simple; you're my descendant. In doing this, with all of the confusion that will ensue, it would be a perfect time to attack the city. If you get control of the city, and you pass the power down through the family, then eventually, I'll get what I want, and you'll have more than you ever knew you wanted."

"I like the sound of that... And I had never even thought of doing that! I'm impressed."

"Well, you're ingenious planning passed through the family."

"Celeste!" Ceci yelled from somewhere nearby.

"Now if only you're uncanny ability to find good help passed, also..."

Ceci flew in, wearing a ridiculous pair of green goggles, and landed lightly in front of us. The goggles were a pair of night vision goggles Ceci managed to make for herself with random parts Velvet had lying around. Like I said; technological genius when she felt like it, moron anytime else.

"Uh, I think we have a problem," Ceci stated.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense!" I snapped after a few moments of silence. As usual, the fact that I was annoyed with her completely flew past her.

"Okay, so my parents designed this gauntlet so it could be a time machine and pick up spacial and temporal anomalies in the area," Ceci explained. "And this thing has been going nuts the past few hours! I think someone's using a time machine, or trying to use a time machine to come here."

Velvet and I looked at each other; we suspected the same people.

"Ceci, could you use your time machine, go into the future, and see what the Loonatics are up to?" Velvet asked.

"And the L5," I cut in.

"Yeah, sure," Ceci chirped in response. She then proceeded to open up a portal, still in the same room we were in. Velvet cried out and ducked under her cloak to avoid the light.

"_Ceci_!" I yelled.

"Sorry!" she called. She flew into the portal and was gone.

"And you're teamed up with that dipstick _why_ exactly?" Velvet asked after the light faded.

"Because she has the time machine, and she knows how it works," I replied. "I just had to promise her power when I have control of the city, and she did whatever I told her to."

"And you're actually going to let her have control over... Well, _anything_?"

"Of course not," I replied dismissively. "I just have to wait until she's not important anymore. Then I won't have to deal with her ever again..."

**xoxoxoxox**  
**  
**_May 3, 2939_****

**Ceci's POV**

Celeste wanted me to go spy on the Loonatics and the L5, so that's what I was going to do. I never knew why I did everything Celeste told me to, but it always seemed to work out well in the end, so I just rolled with it.

The time machine sent me 164 years into the future exactly, so I would be able to see what the L5 and Loonatics had done since we left. I ended up across the street from the L5's HQ, so I didn't have to go very far. A window was open a few dozen stories up, too, so getting inside was easy.

I took a long way around to get inside to avoid being seen, and then flew in. I landed on the windowsill so no one inside would see me before I wanted them to. It was hot inside the room the window was in, but it was easy to see why; there were two people using welders far below me, along with a whole bunch of other machines that got warmer and warmer the longer they were on. The room had a really high ceiling, and the window I came in was close to it, so I could see the people below me without being seen.

"It's amazing that we got this done so quickly," a green coyote anthro said as he shut off his welding torch. He flipped up his mask, and I realized it was Tech, one of the original Loonatics. I remembered launching him off the roof, but he was the one that could regenerate, so I wasn't too surprised to see him.

"Psycho-and-Rev-finished-assembling-the-parts-way-quicker-than-we-thought," the roadrunner from the L5, Claire, said as she pushed her goggles onto her forehead. "So-that-saved-us-a-lot-of-time."

"How long until you're done?" another green coyote, Sive, asked. She was lying on the couch in the corner of the room. I remembered launching her off the roof, too, but I was surprised to see that she was alright.

"Probably tomorrow," Tech replied. "We'll be ready for another test in about half an hour."

They were working on something that looked like an arch. A familiar arch that my parents had thrown out years ago... _It's a time machine!_

I knew I needed to keep them from finishing it, so I had to act fast. I was about to fly into the room to do something, when the door opened and someone walked in. It was one of the twin rabbits.

"Wolfe wants an update," he/she stated (their own _team_ couldn't tell them apart, so I saw no reason to try.)

"Tell him that they're almost done, and that if he asks for one more update, I'll personally go up there and drill the same message we've given him the last eight times he's asked into his skull," Sive replied, making the rabbit giggle.

I didn't want Wolfe to get involved in this, so I decided to act before the bunny left. I jumped off of the window ledge, flew inside, and landed so I blocked the door from the others. The rabbit yelled in surprise and dove backward while Tech and Claire immediately jumped in front of the time machine and Sive sprang up from the couch and darted over to the rest of them.

"What do _you_ want?" Sive spat.

"Right now, I want to make sure that time machine doesn't work," I replied matter-of-factly. "If Celeste and Velvet find out that you have it, and that I didn't do anything about it, then they'd probably kill me."

"Wait a second. _Velvet_? As in, _Black_ Velvet?" Tech asked incredulously.

_Oops..._ I always said things I wasn't supposed to say, but it wouldn't matter in that case. I wouldn't give them the chance to tell anyone anything, anyways.

"Well, _duh_, how many people do you know that go by 'Velvet'?" I asked sarcastically.

"Why-are-you-working-with-Velvet?" Claire asked.

"Because she's Celeste's ancestor, and because if we help Velvet get some 'bio-whatever' thing with our time machine, then she'll help us." If Celeste heard all of the stuff I was telling them, she would probably kill me.

"If you think we're going to let you touch this machine, then you've got another thing coming!" the rabbit exclaimed.

"Like you're going to stop me!" I replied as I shot a time portal at them. I had made a modification to it since I last saw them, so the portals came and went a lot faster. The anthros weren't fast enough, not even Claire, and they all got sucked in. I had it set to a date way into the past; a date there was no chance they could come back from.

I heard people quickly approaching from outside the door, so I turned to the time machine and shot a powerful sound blast at it. It was more than enough to break the arch in half, completely wreck the computers it was hooked up to, and send random parts flying across the room.

I opened another time portal that would take me back to Celeste and Velvet, and flew through it. I vaguely heard a door open behind me, but I was already gone by that point.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

I figured something wasn't right when I heard the static sound that came from Ceci's time machine, but I ignored it; time machines weren't the only things that made static, and it was pretty far away. I knew something was up when I heard a twin yell, though.

We were all in the living room, talking about what we were going to do next, when I heard the twin. I sat up quickly and listened hard, but I couldn't hear anything else.

"Something wrong?" Nega asked.

"I think so..." I explained what I heard, and everyone else looked as panicked as I felt. Without saying another word to each other, we simultaneously ran out of the room. Rev kept pace with the rest of us so he wouldn't get lost again.

We quickly made our way down to the lab, but I heard a whole conversation between Ceci and Tech, Sive, Claire, and a twin that I found very interesting. Then I heard the time machine again, followed by a sound blast that made me wince, but I didn't stop running. We made it into the lab just in time to see a portal closing.

The place was a mess. The once near-completed time machine was lying in pieces all around the room, along with other random odds and ends, but all of that was lost on me. I only noticed that Tech, Claire, Sive, and the twin were gone.

"Where... Are they?" Wolfe asked, out of breath.

"I have a _bad_ feeling about this..." Psycho stated grimly. He looked a little freaked, and I remembered that since Sive was his descendant, if anything happened to her, he could fade.

"Lex, did ya hear anythin' else after de twin yelled?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, and you won't believe it," I stated. I told them everything I heard, anyways, and everyone had an identical look of a mixture of shock, worry, and disbelief on their faces.

"Wait a second, _Black Velvet_? As in, bad guy from _your_ time Black Velvet?" the remaining twin asked in disbelief.

"Celeste is her descendant," Nega stated. The twin, Psycho, and Laela gave her quizzical looks. Well, the twin and Psycho did; Laela just stared in her general direction.

"It was never important," Wolfe said to them in response. "It never really came up. Sorry if you didn't know."

"Do-you-think-Ceci-sent-them-back-to-our-time-because-she-did-it-before-so-maybe-she-did-it-again," Rev speculated.

"No chance of that," Nega stated matter-of-factly. "Ceci's like lightning; she never makes the same mistake twice. Well, most of the time, anyways."

"Maybe they'll come back with another time machine?" the twin ventured hopefully.

"Sorry, Mei, but Ceci probably sent them too far back for that," Wolfe stated, taking a guess at which one the twin was.

"I'm _Donny_." If the situation wasn't that bad, I would've laughed. Wolfe never got the twins right; he had said he thought they were switching on him to annoy him.

"Sorry, Donny..."

"So, with the two techies gone, what do we do now?" Duck asked, skipping right to the point. As always.

"Well..." Rev began, thinking something over before speaking. "Okay-so-Psycho-and-I-helped-a-bit-with-this-thing-when-Tech-and-Claire-were-working-on-it-and-we-saw-a-lot-of-what-they-did-so-I-for-one-think-we-can-maybe-work-on-this."

"Just don't expect us to get it done in any _reasonable_ amount of time..." Psycho muttered, waving his hand and sending a random scrap of metal into his hand.

"It's better than nothing," Wolfe stated. "Until then, I'm not taking my eyes off of my tablet computer. If another portal opens, I'll know about it."

"Is there any way to figure out where she sent them?" I asked. "Then when Chroniker uses his time machine to get us, or if we finish this one, we can go find them!"

"I'm afraid not..." Nega replied grimly. "Not unless we can get Ceci's time machine, that is. And now both Ceci and Celeste are 164 years away."

"Den we'll just have ta wait until we either finish dis time machine or until Chroniker picks us up," Ace stated determinedly, trying to keep our hopes up. "We'll stop Celeste and Velvet, take Ceci's time machine, and den find Tech, Sive, Mei, and Claire."

"Sounds like a plan," Wolfe stated.

Despite everyone else's obvious hopefulness, I started worrying all over again about my teammates.

**A/N: I enjoy sending characters through time… *evil laugh* R&R!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: AAAAAAHHH!**

…**I almost forgot to post this today, and I'm still freaking out about it. Okay, I'm good now. Anyways, this is **_**a lot**_** shorter than I thought it would be, but the next one will probably be a long one, so it evens out. I'll have it up probably on Saturday. I say probably because I haven't even started it yet (**_**woopsie!**_**) but I'll get it done. Don't worry about it.**

**And PurpleGirly, after reading your review… You're right. I should've done more on the reunion thing… A little late now, though… DX I'm not sure what was going through my head… Or should I say what **_**wasn't **_**going through my head? DX My bad, guys… My bad…**

_May 3, 2775_  
**  
Celeste's POV**

To us, Ceci was only gone about 10 minutes. When she got back, I wished that she was gone again immediately. She opened up her portal in the same room as us and blinded Velvet again, and I immediately knew I wouldn't like what she had to say; she looked pleased with herself. I never liked her explanation for looking pleased with herself.

"That could've been really bad," she said, "but I fixed the problem!"

"What _'problem'_?" I asked.

"The time rifts were made by a time machine that the L5 had. Tech and Claire were fixing it, and they _almost_ had it done."

"They have a time machine, too?" Velvet asked in surprise.

She was about to say more, but I held up my hand and slowly asked through gritted teeth, "What do you mean, _'were'_?"

"Oh, I just sent the two of them along with one of the twin rabbits and Sive a few hundred years back through time, broke their time machine, and left," Ceci stated indifferently.

"You _moron_!" I screeched. "Do you have any idea what kind of _damage_ you might've done? If anyone sees them, it could alter time in so many ways, _everything_ will fall apart! And what about-"

"Hold on a second," Velvet began, making me stop short. "She sent them far enough back so time travel technology doesn't exist, so they can't get back. They don't want to make everything fall apart, so they'll lie low. It's perfect! And it's given me an idea of what to do with the others..."

I still wasn't happy with Ceci, but Velvet was right. And she also had a _really_ good idea.

_This is going to be fun... And then when they're all gone, we'll help Velvet get her bio-converter, and both of our plans will finally be complete.  
_  
**xoxoxoxox**

_May 3, ?_

**Sive's POV**

Wherever Ceci sent us, I immediately didn't like it. The air smelled really bad, a thick haze was over the city, there was trash everywhere, and it was _hot_. I also understood what Wolfe meant when he said that time travel wasn't fun...

We all stood up just as the portal closed, leaving us wherever Ceci decided to send us. I looked around, and the place reminded me a lot of the Navy District. The buildings were old and abandoned, a good few of them falling apart, there was litter everywhere, and it didn't look like a particularly good neighborhood. On the other hand, though, a bunch of buildings that looked like people were living in them looked very futuristic and tech-savvy, and had army fortress-like qualities to them.

"Are we still in Acmetropolis?" the twin asked.

"Doesn't look like it..." I began. "But Ceci has a time machine, not a teleporter."

"Sive's-right-this-_has_-to-be-Acmetropolis," Claire agreed. "Only-when-is-this-I-don't-think-it's-the-future-so-that-means-that-we're-in-the-past-but-this-has-to-be-before-my-time-actually-before-even-_your_-time!"

"So we're _behind_ 2775?" I asked. "Well that's just _great_. There's no time travel technology before then!"

"Let's go look around a bit," Tech suggested. "Hopefully we'll be able to figure out where we are." We walked down the street, and I was surprised at how quiet it was. It was like no one was around, and it was a little creepy.

Eventually we reached an area crowded with shops, but there were five or six people walking around. They all stopped a moment to look at us strangely, then continued on their way. One guy walked past us and said, "Cool costumes."

I was confused for a moment, before realizing that we were standing outside a costume shop. Tech was about to say something to him, but I cut him off. I tried to move my mouth as little as possible and avoid blinking to act as if I was wearing a mask. "Thanks. We're going to a costume party." They way I saw it, we had no idea where we were, so it was probably a good idea to go with the flow for a bit until we figured out what was going on.

"Isn't it the wrong time of year for that?" the guy asked.

"Different strokes for different folks," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

"Whatever you say... Still weird for May, though."

"Actually, can you tell us the date?" Claire asked, catching onto what I was doing and avoiding making any facial movements. She spoke slowly so the guy could understand her.

He looked at her strangely, but the twin caught on and said, "We're in the middle of an argument over whether the party's actually today or not."

"Oh, sure," the guy replied. We were still probably weird to him, but at least he wouldn't have us carted off to the wacky shack or anything. "It's May third."

"Told you!" the twin said to Claire who shrugged in defeat. They were good actors.

Tech finally caught on to what we were doing, and nonchalantly said, "The prices for these costumes skyrocketed since last year."

The guy seemed more interested in talking economics. "_Everything's_ skyrocketed since last year! The environment's flushed everything down the toilet for us middle class people! I mean, sure it's better than 100 years ago when it was _really_ bad, but I was still having trouble keeping my apartment in the 60's, let alone now when it's starting to get worse again!"

"The 60's?" Tech repeated, looking confused.

"2260? Maybe before your time… I can't see under that mask, but it was only 20 years ago."

We all stood there in shocked silence. That was a _long_ ways away from home. Tech snapped out of it long enough to say goodbye to the man and usher us into an alley where no one could see us unless they were looking for us.

"700 years..." the twin muttered in disbelief.

"That's 500 years before time travel," Claire stated slowly.

"Uh, guys?" Tech said. We turned our attention to him. "Right now, a big problem is going to be blending in, because we _don't_!"

"So our outfits stick out a little; we'll manage," I said dismissively.

"No, that's not the problem," Tech stated grimly. "On an evolutionary standpoint, anthros didn't exist until the year 2413, and we weren't accepted into society until 100 years later. If we're in 2280, then according to science, society, and everyone and thing else, we shouldn't exist outside of a cartoon show. If we're found, not only will the time stream be severely altered, but we'll probably be sent to some mad-science lab. We'll need to stay in hiding, which will be a problem considering how abandoned buildings and the outdoors aren't safe due to the pollution levels at this time. If we can't find a safe place to hide with clear air soon, then we'll be dead within a few months."

That put us off even more than we already were. It explained why hardly anyone was outside, and why some buildings were falling apart while others were fortresses against the air.

"…Good thinking back there, Sive," Tech added after a moment of shocked silence. "We wouldn't be in a very good situation right now if it wasn't for you."

"No problem…" I mumbled, still in shock.

"So, lemme get this straight," the twin said. "We're stuck in a time with little to no chance of ever getting home. We shouldn't exist here, and if we're found, we'll probably be cut open in some lab like in the horror movies. We'll need to stay in hiding and avoid any contact with anyone other than ourselves. So, all in all, life as we know it will cease to exist."

Tech nodded his head. There was only one thing I could think of saying to sum up our situation.

"Well, _fuck_."

**A/N: Yeah, not a good situation to be in, huh? …Trying to resist asking questions again… DX R&R!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Again, this is shorter than I thought it would be. And as for my lateness, I apologize, but I had a cousin's first birthday party to go to that I completely forgot about on Saturday, so I was neither able to finish it, nor post it. I could've posted this yesterday, but I read it over and realized that it kinda sucked, so I decided to rewrite it in hopes that all of you reading this would rather wait for a good chapter instead of not wait for a crappy chapter. (This is my third draft of this, by the way. Not an easy chapter.) And I think I forgot to mention that this was an important chapter… Well, I just did, so there. After this, you'll know the whole back story.**

_May 5, 2939_

**Nega's POV  
**  
It was late at night, and I was doing an all day, turning into an all-night practice session in the training room. I wasn't using a particularly difficult setting on our seemingly limitless supply of robotic training dummies; I was actually on level 1, in which the worst they could do was knock me off my feet, and I was only using three of them. I wasn't getting very far, though. The three robots I started with were still standing without even a dent, but I wasn't trying to break them.

I was trying to get my time travel ability to work like it was supposed to, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I was trying to get to a point where I could actually rewind time for myself, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get past just slowing everything down. I needed to vary what I focused on to vary the results, but that was only in theory; I had never done it successfully before. I also needed to use the robots because the power didn't work if I was just using it to use it; I had to be in some sort of relatively bad situation, and the robots simulated that.

I was standing across the room from the robots, mentally preparing myself. I needed to figure out what I was going to be focusing on before I actually started, and I gave it a few trials before moving on to the next thing. This was my seventh attempt. I needed to focus on what I was trying to accomplish with the power, or my reason for using it. It usually required a deeper reason, but nothing I had tried so far worked, so I decided to go basic.

_I need to use it to figure out how this power works._

"Begin sequence!" I shouted. The system read my voice, and activated the robots. They stood up, waited a moment, then suddenly started running towards me. They were all the way across the large room, so I had a moment to get ready.

I closed my eyes focused as hard as I could on my reason. As the familiar numbness started spreading around my body, I opened my eyes and looked around. The robots had made it about halfway across the room, but they were steadily slowing down; not like running then walking to me, but more like running in slow motion. I took an experimental step back, and found that I was also moving in slow motion. To anyone other than myself, everything was still happening in real time, but I knew what was really going on.

The slow-motion did help in fights by giving me more time to think of what to do, which made all the difference in certain cases, but it wasn't what I was going for. I was trying to actually _rewind_ time, not just slow it down, so I started focusing even harder. The robots got slower and slower, but never actually _stopped_. Eventually, they crossed the room, and the one in front managed to hit me hard. My concentration broke, everything started moving in real time again all at once, and I fell to the floor.

"Ending sequence..." a computerized voice said over the speakers. The sequence was supposed to end automatically after a set period of time, but that was _way_ too quick.

I craned my head around as the robots retreated and deactivated just as Lexi ran up to me from the control panel. That was the downside of the power; I couldn't hear anything while I was using it, so I never heard her come in.

"Are you _crazy_?" she asked as she helped me on my feet. The impact didn't hurt, but when I was forcibly ripped out of my concentration, my head started hurting a _lot_. After the many times that had happened that day, my brain felt fried.

"I'm _fine_," I snapped as I brushed her off. I was pretty annoyed at that time (mostly at myself,) and I was a little embarrassed that she had just seen me be thrown on my butt by a weak opponent that I could've beaten in one hit. I had been called a 'killing-machine' by Donny once, which was pretty accurate.

"What were you _thinking_?" Lexi asked me.

"I was-" I started, unsure of what to answer at first. I wasn't really sure what I was thinking, and it was tough to put into words. "...I was thinking that, if I could just get this power right, then maybe... Maybe something would go right for a change."

Lexi put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I know the situation seems bad now, but it'll be alright. Beating yourself up won't do anything to help, either."

"I know, I know," I muttered. "There are just so many places where something could go wrong, or, even more than it already has, anyway, and I want to be ready for anything. The only way I'll feel like that is if I can figure out this power. That way, if anything really bad happens, I can do something about it instead of standing by helplessly and watching what happens."

"You know, the weight of the world doesn't rest on just your shoulders," Lexi said. "You can rely on the rest of us. If anything bad happens, you've got 14, er, 10 other people right with you." We were all still adjusting to not having Claire, Mei, Tech, and Sive around; it was like losing a limb to us.

"I know, it's just a habit," I replied dismissively. I walked over to a wall and leaned on it, and Lexi sat down on a small bench next to me. "I've almost always had to look out for myself, but now that I'm part of a team, I feel like it's up to me sometimes to help them and keep them safe. They can look out for themselves, sure, but half of them aren't even 21 yet! And Celeste... I consider her my responsibility."

"Why's that?"

"We've been rivals since... As long as I've known her, actually," I replied, mildly surprised at my answer. I had never really thought about it before, and I was surprised with how long Celeste and I had hated each other.

"I take it that's a lot longer than when she and the L5 first clashed," Lexi commented. When super heroes fight villains, they naturally don't like each other, so I wouldn't seem surprised at the duration of our mutual dislike if it was only since she first crossed the L5.

I was conflicted at that point; I wanted to explain everything to Lexi, but I didn't want to revisit those memories. It had been a tough time for me, and it would lead to explaining something that I wanted to revisit even less. Lexi did deserve to know, though, and I felt okay talking to her about it, even while I didn't like talking about it with anyone on my own team. Telling her about it wouldn't alter anything, anyways.

"Yeah, it goes way further back," I muttered. "We knew each other before she became a super villain; before we were disfigured, even. This is going way far back..."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Lexi reassured me. I could tell that she was dying to know, though.

"Nah, it's alright," I replied. "You deserve to know, and I'm alright with telling you about it. Anyways, this goes all the way back to when I was in high school. Celeste, Ceci and I were in the same school, same grade." Lexi had a shocked look on her face, but kept silent, waiting for me to explain more. "We ran in different circles, but everyone knew us, and almost everyone was sided with one of us. Celeste was head cheerleader, and the leader of the snobby, stuck-up, popular crowd, and Ceci was another cheerleader who followed Celeste around like a lost puppy and did whatever she told her to. I wasn't really anybody, but I stood up for the people Celeste and company mercilessly picked on. I had hated Celeste from the start, and she started hating me after... An incident in which I humiliated her in front of a large crowd that I will not go into."

"I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that a pack of judgmental high schoolers followed someone who looked like Celeste," Lexi stated.

"Back then, she was pretty," I replied. "It was only when she got her powers that she started looking like she does now."

"How did she get her powers, anyway?" Lexi asked. "And how did Ceci get hers?"

"Ceci got hers from an experiment gone wrong in her parents' lab," I explained. "The resulting radiation killed her parents, but gave her her powers."

"And Celeste...?" Lexi began.

_Another question I'm reluctant to answer..._

"...That's a bit of a story..." I began after a moment. "Junior year, there was a college party at a huge lake in the middle of the forest. Celeste knew some people, so she was able to get in along with a bunch of her friends. She didn't bring Ceci, though. Anyways, she invited a friend of mine just to humiliate her at the party, and my friend went. I heard about it, so I went there to go help her. It got bad about 25 minutes after I got there. I was in the thick of the crowd, so I couldn't see what had happened, but I heard about it later. Apparently, a bright, white light appeared in the middle of the lake, and a huge black beam came out of it. It hit the party head on. There were about 700 people at that party, and 600 died right then. 198 of them died later on."

"So, you and Celeste...?" Lexi began tentatively.

"Were the only survivors? Yes," I replied. "We were disfigured in similar ways, and our powers are fairly similar, because they came from the same source. Afterwards, we were never looked at the same way, even by our families. I dropped out of school and went off on my own because I couldn't take it, and Celeste did the same. I hated people for giving me those looks... Fortunately, I found the L5, who accepted me for what I am, and I got over it. Celeste obviously wasn't so lucky. She became cold, and started hating all of the 'normal people.' So, she became a super villain, teamed up with Ceci for her time machine, and here we are."

"Wow... I had no idea," Lexi said, still in shock from what I had just told her. "So they've always been like this?"

"Nah, they didn't kill people in high school," I replied. "But as far as I know, they have never been good people."

"At least they seem to be leaving us alone now," Lexi said when she finally got over the shock of what I told her. It did seem that way; we hadn't heard a thing from Celeste and Ceci since Claire, Mei, Tech, and Sive disappeared. There were no temporal anomalies, and there was no sign of them anywhere.

Unfortunately for us, she spoke too soon. A white light appeared three feet in front of us, and I was prepared for Ceci to come out of it and attack us (Celeste didn't time travel if she could avoid it.) I was surprised when nothing came out of it, but it instead started acting like a huge vacuum cleaner. That was a new one on me, and I braced myself against the pull as Lexi started holding onto the bench to avoid being sucked in. We would have tried moving out of the way, but Lexi didn't dare let go of the bench, and it was a miracle that I still hadn't flown in as it was, so I wasn't going to push my luck.

Then my luck ran out. My feet slipped, and I went flying forward towards the portal. Lexi let go of the bench with one hand to grab me, but she couldn't keep both of us rooted to the bench with only one hand, so she slipped, and we were sucked into the portal.

I had never time traveled before, but I immediately decided to never do it again. The trip itself was pretty bad, but where we ended up was worse.

We were in a not particularly large room, and it was pitch black inside. I could see in the dark, though, so at least we weren't completely blind. There were no light fixtures that I could see, but I didn't spend too much time looking for them.

"Where are we?" Lexi asked as she stood up behind me.

"Don't move," I ordered quietly. She stood absolutely still, and listened intently for a moment. When she got a mildly panicked look on her face, I could tell that she knew what I was seeing; we were anything but alone.

There were dozens of people around us. Well, they were people-ish; some of them were shadow walkers, but others were these strange looking beings I had never seen before. They were wearing funny outfits, had glowing eyes, and had blades or maces for hands. Lexi and I were severely outnumbered, and there was no way Lexi could fight well against something she couldn't see.

"How bad is it?" Lexi asked after I surveyed the situation. If she was scared at all, she was doing a good job of hiding it. I was pretty worried myself, but there was no reason to show it.

"It's bad," I replied matter-of-factly.

The things surrounding us rushed us then, and we didn't stand a chance. Both Lexi and I were unconscious in less than five minutes.

**A/N: Here I go again! XD Someone needs to stop me before I do something really bad… XD Anyways, I have absolutely no idea when I'll get the next chapter up. I have a state-level Latin test on Saturday on the other end of the state, so not only will I spend almost all week studying for it, but my weekend is kind of blown, too. So… If there's a wait, I apologize in advance. If not… Disregard that apology. R&R!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: After yet another long car trip, I was able to get another chapter and a half done! It's short again, though… I'm starting to think that my average chapter length is starting to shrink… Ah, well, no big deal. Anyways, next chapter's up in a few days! …Probably.**

_May 5, 2939_

**Wolfe's POV**

It was getting pretty late, and I was dead tired. I hadn't slept since Claire and the others disappeared, and it was starting to take its toll. I could go for a long time without sleep, but the past few days had been so physically and mentally exhausting, I was starting to reach my limit.

I was sitting in the armchair I could usually be found in with my tablet in my lab. Nothing had happened since Ceci stormed the lab and broke the time machine, and I wasn't sure if I should have been happy about that, or worried.

Just then, I heard yelling coming from the lab, and I stood up. I was about to run down there to see what was happening, when Donny ran in, covering his head with his arms.

"Jeez, Psycho is _mad_," he said as he straightened up. "I'm starting to realize why you guys started calling him that… Rev doesn't seem too happy, either, but at least he didn't throw stuff at me."

"Wait, Psycho _threw_ stuff at you?" I asked incredulously. Psycho was like me; the twins left him alone, and he helped them out when he could. He actually got along pretty well with Donny.

"Yeah! He and Rev are _cranky_," he repeated. "Probably because they haven't gotten anywhere with the time machine... Or because they haven't slept at all lately. Ace is down there trying to convince them to rest."

"I'd better go help him," I stated. I picked my tablet up off of the floor, which had fallen when I stood up so quickly, and handed it to Donny. "If that beeps, run down and find me _immediately_." Normally I wouldn't trust Donny with something like that, but he was the only one around.

I handed him the tablet, and walked to the lab. Ace had already told Psycho and Rev multiple times to take a break, and if they hadn't yet, he would need backup this time around.

I heard Ace trying to reason with the frustrated techies from down the hall.

"You guys have been workin' non-stop for almost 3 days," Ace said in an exasperated tone.

"And we don't have much to show for it," Psycho retorted. He was usually pretty cheery; I'd never heard him sound annoyed before.

"For sanity's sake, at least take a quick rest," Ace pleaded. He sounded tired. We all were at that point.

"Ace-if-we-can't-get-this-done-soon-then-who-knows-what-could-happen-to-Tech-Sive-Claire-and-Mei-not-even-to-speak-of-what-Celeste-Ceci-and-Velvet-could-do-back-in-our-time," Rev reasoned.

"If you overwork yourselves, den you'll lose even more time den you would if you just take a quick break," Ace stated. "I'm askin' you as a concerned friend; rest for a while."

"Sorry, but we'll pass," Psycho responded. I decided to jump in then, so I walked into the room. I crossed my arms and gave Rev and Psycho a hard look. They immediately looked up from what they were doing and looked back at me. Ace was standing a few feet away from the arch, Rev was working on the very bottom part of the left end of the arch, and Psycho was standing on a sheet of metal that he made float a few feet off the ground so he could reach the topmost part of the arch that they had assembled. It wasn't very high up, and they didn't even have half of it reassembled, yet.

"How about an _order_ to rest?" I asked. It was a rhetorical question, and Psycho knew it. He could tell I wasn't in the mood to deal with this, and no one ever wanted to tick me off. "We're already down four people. I'm not risking losing two more to exhaustion, of all things."

That final bit of reasoning seemed to get to them. They looked at each other, simultaneously sighed, and Rev stood up as Psycho landed noisily. He was usually silent when using his powers, so that showed me exactly how tired he was. He and Rev walked out, and it was just Ace and I left in the lab. He looked about as tired as I felt.

"This isn't easy, I know," I said to him, "but at least you've had worse."

"I can't think of anythin' worse dan dis," Ace stated.

"What about-" I caught myself just in time. The events I thought of hadn't happened yet. "...Never mind."

Ace chuckled, then fell silent. "...I've never been in a situation like dis where teammates have been gone for any length of time and I didn't know where dey were. It's nerve-wracking."

"At least you haven't actually lost anyone," I stated grimly. "Who knows how many people we started out with before Celeste came along... You know, previous generations never had these problems; it's just us, and it's aggravating. Sometimes, I just want to take out my sword and slice everything I can reach in half."

"I have dose days, too," Ace agreed. "Actually, I've been meanin' ta ask ya about dat. How do you have de GSS?"

"It's passed down from leader to leader," I stated. "I'm the first one to have it who wasn't a descendant of someone from the original team." I was also the first to have it who wasn't one of Ace's descendants, but it might've affected something if I told him that, so I kept it to myself. "It hasn't helped much in this situation, though," I added bitterly.

"Dere's nothing you could've done to stop all dis from happening," Ace tried reassuring me, but it didn't work so well.

"That's just it; there _are_ things I could've done to stop it! _Lots_ of them! I could've finished off Celeste the first time we clashed, before she could hurt anyone, or I could've had Claire put more security on the computer to guard our files so Celeste couldn't get them and figure out who our teammates ancestors were, or-"

"You can go through 'What if's all you want, but either way, you never knew ta do dose things at dat time," Ace interrupted. No matter how much I didn't want to admit it, he was right.

Turns out I didn't have to, though. We heard Psycho and Rev yell from upstairs, as did everyone else in a half-mile radius. Ace and I didn't hesitate; we ran as fast as possible up to where we heard them yell.

We were running down a hallway we called the 'T' when Duck, Laela, Slam, and Buzz came running from the opposite direction. Donny met us after running down the remaining hallway, my tablet still in hand, at essentially the same time.

"What happened?" I asked urgently.

"We were all asleep in our rooms," Laela stated. "We came running when we heard Psycho and Rev yell."

"Harahu garbla no find," Slam grunted.

"You are only ones we saw," Buzz stated.

"I didn't see anything, either," Donny stated.

"Well, since we all met here, it had to come from somewhere nearby," I reasoned. "Look in all of the nearby rooms."

After a thorough search, and Donny turning into Rev to try locating them with his GPS, we came up with nothing. It was like they had disappeared into thin air.

"What could've happened?" Ace asked as we all sat down in the living room.

"Donny, did my tablet beep or do anything at all?" I asked.

This had Ceci written all over it, which was why we were surprised when he said, "No." My tablet beeped every time Ceci's time machine was used in the area. I had it locked on to the machine's frequency, so if she ever came or left, I'd know about it.

"If all of the techies are gone, then what do we do about the time machine?" Duck asked. Ace and I looked at each other; we hadn't thought about that.

"None of us here know what ta do when it comes ta fixin' dat thing," Ace began, "so we'll just have ta wait for Chroniker ta pick us up."

Then Ace seemed to realize something. He stood up and looked around almost wildly. "Where's Lexi?" he asked urgently.

My eyes widened as I realized what he was talking about. "Nega's not here, either..."

"Maybe they didn't hear anything?" Donny ventured optimistically.

"Super hearing," Buzz said, reminding Donny of Lexi's powers.

"_What_ is going on here?" Duck asked. I wished I had an answer.

**xoxoxoxox**  
_  
May 5, 2280_

**Sive's POV  
**  
The bad air was getting to us. It wasn't affecting Tech and Claire as much as Mei and I, but it still wasn't pleasant for any of us.

We had stayed in the alley for the two days since we got there, and the first day was alright. The second day, Mei and I had both developed very bad coughs, and we had trouble breathing at times. Tech and Claire coughed a bit, but that was it for them.

Mei was sound asleep on the ground, Claire was nervously peeking out of the alley at the street, even though no one was around, I was anxiously pacing around, trying to think of a way to get home and/or get out of the bad air, and Tech was sitting on the ground, deep in thought. I would've thought he was asleep if he didn't rub his head every so often. He opened his eyes and looked worriedly at Mei when she started coughing again in her sleep, but she got over her fit quickly without waking up.

"This air is affecting us faster than I thought," Tech stated. "We need to figure something out, and _fast_, or we'll all be dead in less than two weeks."

"Well-if-you-have-any-ideas-I'm-open-to-suggestions," Claire snapped. She had been pretty grouchy for the past couple of days. Mei said it was because she didn't know what to do, and that bugged her. I saw where this was going.

"Why do you always ask me if I have any ideas? Why can't you seem to be able to come up with something?" Tech retorted.

"And-why-do-you-always-come-back-to-me?" They had been arguing on and off since we got there. It was fun to watch at first, but I was starting to get sick of it.

"Could you two stop fighting for ten minutes so we can try thinking of something?" I exclaimed. "Fighting won't solve anything, and if we can't figure out something soon-" I ended up cutting myself off with a violent coughing fit. This one was worse than it had been before, and I put one hand on a wall to keep myself from collapsing. Tech shot up and helped ease me onto the ground as my fit ended and left me gasping for breath.

"I'm fine," I choked out as soon as I could. My throat felt like sandpaper, and I thought it was a miracle I was able to speak as it was.

"We need to figure something out," Tech stated again. "_Now_."

"Let's-bounce-ideas-off-each-other-and-see-what-we-get," Claire suggested. I tried thinking of anything that would help, but I couldn't come up with anything that was possible and/or made sense. Tech and Claire were coming up with all sorts of complicated plans that I wasn't able to follow, but it sounded as if they were continuously shooting each other down.

For lack of anything better to do, I decided to peek out into the street and see what was around. I was hoping to see something that would give me some inspiration.

There wasn't much there. A drugstore, a grocery store, the costume shop, a post office, a gas station that I was only able to recognize from a picture I had seen in a history book once, and a fast food place lined the streets with the rest of the old, abandoned buildings. All-in-all, not much to look at.

I walked back to the others and sat down next to the still-sleeping Mei. In the time I had been gone, which was about a minute, Tech and Claire had started arguing again. I was too tired to deal with them then, so I followed Mei's idea and fell asleep.

**A/N: Things aren't looking good, are they? Just wait… Things start looking better in the next chapter! Well, for some of them, anyways… R&R!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: SORRY! I got this up later than I thought I would, but when I originally wrote it, I got ahead of myself, so I had to copy/paste the latter half of this chapter to the next one, and rewrite the last half so it all made sense again. Plus, I've been super busy this week, so I'm still surprised I got as much done as I did as quickly as I did.**

**This also means that I misspoke. The good, happy part isn't until the next chapter, but the good news is that unless I get critically injured or something, it will be up sometime on Friday. I have the day off of school then, so I can guarantee it!**

**Thanks to Halloween Witch, for pointing out an important error I made! But for the one I didn't edit, it says that she's speaking slowly, so it's supposed to be like that.**

_May 6, 2939_  
**  
Ace's POV**

It was about 1AM, and everyone who hadn't disappeared without a trace as of yet was in the kitchen except for Wolfe and Buzz. We were hanging out there since Wolfe was freaking out a bit in the living room, and we thought it was best to leave him alone. Buzz had just left to check on him.

Laela and Duck were sitting at a small table playing checkers (Duck was losing miserably,) Slam was raiding the refrigerator, Donny was nervously pacing around the room almost as fast as Rev, and I was silently sitting on the countertop, worrying about Lexi and the others. We were all exhausted, but after everything that had just happened, there was no way any of us could sleep.

I felt really mad at myself at the time. It felt as if I had let my team down, and as if I had failed as a leader. And yet, anyone would feel that way if they had lost 4/7 of their teammates in less than a week.

After Donny passed me for the 63rd time (I was counting,) I said, "You're goin' ta make a rut in de floor if ya keep pacin' around like dat."

"And you're going to wear holes in the countertop if you keep that up," he retorted almost playfully. I looked down and realized that I had been drumming my fingers again, and I stopped immediately.

"What's got you so worked up, anyway?" I asked. He was probably worried about his teammates, too, but he almost seemed more worried than I was.

"It's just that I could fa-" He stopped abruptly and said, "Never mind."

I was confused for a moment. It sounded as if he was about to say 'fade,' which didn't make any sense. I was his descendent, and there was nothing threatening me. Well, right at that moment, anyways.

I was about to ask him what he meant, but I never got the chance. A portal opened up in the doorway leading out of the kitchen, blocking our escape. We all jumped to our feet and prepared ourselves for whatever would come out of it, but then we rapidly grabbed onto something when it started sucking in everything that wasn't bolted down. Slam grabbed an edge of the open refrigerator, which was built right into the wall, so it held him. Duck and Laela grabbed onto the table as their game went flying over our heads, and I grabbed onto the edge of the sink, which was built into the countertop. The only thing Donny could grab was an edge of the countertop, but there wasn't much to hold on to, and he went flying past us as his grip slipped. Slam was able to grab him right before he went into the portal.

The suction grew stronger quickly, and it was getting difficult to hold on. Then, the table that Laela and Duck were holding onto broke, and they went flying past. Laela was able to grab onto Donny, and Duck grabbed onto Laela. Even Slam had his limits, though, and his grip on the fridge started to slip.

"Duck!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Get Wolfe!"

Thankfully, he heard me. He let go of Laela, and quacked away just before he flew into the portal. Then my grip started slipping, and there was nothing I could do about it. Slam was a few feet to my right, so there was no way he could catch me. He was still slipping, himself. We lost our grips at the same time, and all four of us went flying into the portal.

**xoxoxoxox**

_May 6, 2280_  
**  
Tech's POV**

The moon was high in the sky above us, and Claire and I were the only ones still awake. We were still bouncing ideas off of each other, but we weren't getting very far.

"Maybe-we-could-just-try-constructing-a-new-time-machine?" Claire whispered. We were trying to be careful not to wake Sive and Mei. They had both woken up earlier, but had gone to sleep again. Neither of them was doing very well, and Claire and I were both really worried about them.

"No, that could take _years_, if it's even _possible_with today's technology," I replied quietly. "What we should do is try to figure out how to get out of this air, or we'll never be able to figure out a plan to get home, much less have time to implement it."

"Do-you-have-any-ideas-because-I've-_still_-got-nothing-on-how-we-could-do-that," Claire stated. We'd been coming back to how we should have done that often, but we hadn't gotten anywhere.

"...I still don't have anything," I acquiesced grimly.

I looked worriedly at Sive, who was sleeping with her head on my shoulder. She had been sitting next to me earlier when all of us were awake and bouncing ideas off of each other, but she had fallen asleep first. I didn't want to wake her; he hadn't slept much the past few days, and she needed the rest. She was pretty sick, and if we didn't figure out something soon, she wouldn't last long. Based on how far we'd gotten, I was really worried.

"Tech," Claire said loudly enough to get my attention. She spoke slowly and deliberately. "Don't worry; she'll be alright. We'll figure something out." I knew she was just as worried about Mei as Sive. We were all worried for each other, not to mention the nagging thoughts in the backs of our heads as to what the rest of the team was doing back in 2939.

"I hope you're right," I replied. "If not-" I didn't need to finish. We both knew what would happen if she was wrong.

**A/N: I just realized something! This story officially has more reviews than my first one! Awesome! ...Anyways, things aren't looking very good, are they? Just wait! It gets better in the next chapter! R&R!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Darn, another short one… Oh, well, at least it's on time! So, like I said, things start looking up in this chapter! You know- after some more bad stuff happens. Anyways, I'll hopefully get the next chapter up by Sunday, but if not, I'll for sure have it up Monday or Tuesday.**

_May 6, 2939_

**Wolfe's POV**

I was pacing around the living room, feeling a little panicked. The situation had just gotten way out of control, and who knew what could have happed next? I didn't even know what was happening at that time; I only knew that four members of our team disappeared without a trace, and we had no idea what had happened to them. I suspected Ceci and Celeste, but it made no sense considering how my tablet never picked up any time travel activity from them.

Just then, Buzz walked into the room.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Buzz, I'm just...freaked," I replied. "Where's everyone else?"

"Kitchen," he grunted in reply.

Suddenly, something appeared out of nowhere in front of Buzz, went flying forward, hit him in the chest, and fell to the floor. Buzz didn't move an inch; he just looked down at what hit him, which was apparently Duck.

"_Duck_?" I asked in disbelief as he sat up.

"Jeez, did I hit a _wall_ or something?" he asked as he rubbed his head and looked up. Buzz stared back at him. "Oh."

"What happened?" I asked. Duck's eyes widened as he remembered, and he shot to his feet.

"A portal opened in the kitchen, and it was sucking everything in!" he explained wildly. I didn't say anything in reply; I just bolted out of the room with Buzz and Duck hot on my heels.

The kitchen was a disaster area. Everything had been blown around the room, a good few items were broken, and no one was there. There wasn't a portal, either.

"But-" Duck started. "There was a portal here! I swear it!"

"I believe you, Duck," I muttered, still taking in the scene.

"Listen, there _was_ a- you do? That's a first..."

I stepped into the room to take a closer look at the damage, when a bright light flashed behind me. I spun around just as the portal that opened up started sucking everything in. It opened up about a foot behind Duck, who yelled in surprise as he flew in, not quacking in time. Buzz tried grabbing onto the doorframe, but he also didn't move fast enough, and was dragged in after Duck. I grabbed the doorframe as I passed it, but I wasn't strong enough to hold on, and I flew in after them.

It was as unpleasant as the first time, only this time, the place we ended up in was pitch black. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

"Are you two alright?" I asked loudly so they would hear me.

"I'm good," Duck said somewhere behind me.

"I okay," Buzz replied right next to me, making me jump.

"Can either of you two see anything?" I asked. I didn't think they would, but I figured that I may as well ask.

"Hold on a second," Duck said. Then, he formed two eggs in his hands. They gave off a little light, but we could still barely make out each other's faces.

"Do either of you know where we are?" I asked. Buzz and Duck shook their heads. "Okay, then. Let's try to find a way out of here."

We didn't even take one step before I heard the floor creak behind me. I spun around and used my wind powers to slash at it. All I saw was a silhouette, but it disappeared when my powers hit it. I knew what it was right away.

"Shadow walkers!" I exclaimed. Where there was one, there were dozens more, and I could just barely make out their silhouettes in the dim light. There were other things with the shadow walkers that had red, glowing eyes, and I had no idea what they were. They had completely surrounded us in the short time we were there.

"Those other things are Velvet's minions, I think," Duck informed Buzz and I nervously. "They don't disappear when you hit them."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said as I pulled out my sword and rushed forward. The light faded as Duck started fighting, and I heard Buzz spin around in a tornado and run into a bunch of them and send them flying like bowling pins. I slashed with my sword wildly, unsure of where I should be aiming because of the darkness, but I usually hit something. I mostly hit shadow walkers, which I felt disappear right after I hit them, but I also hit the other things, Velvet's minions, which felt way more solid.

I could periodically see a small flash of light when Duck threw an egg, and I could hear Buzz throwing whatever he could grab across the room, but I knew that there was no way we could win this fight. There were just too many of them, and we couldn't even see what we were doing.

Duck was knocked out first. The small flashed of light stopped, and that's how I knew. Buzz went not long after him, and it was just me. With Buzz and Duck down, though, all of the shadow creatures could focus on me, and there were still a few dozen left. They were pressing me on all sides, and one of them managed to hit me in the chest. I was winded, and it was a quick fight after that.

**xoxoxoxox  
**_  
May, 6 2280_

**Sive's POV**

I woke up early the next morning, before anyone else. My throat had made it difficult for me to fall asleep in the first place, and I didn't even remember falling asleep, but judging by how tired I felt, it was probably late the previous night, or earlier that morning. I was surprised to find myself resting my head on Tech's shoulder, and I slowly sat up, careful not to wake him. I didn't feel up to doing anything, and I couldn't exactly go anywhere, so I silently sat there, waiting for the others to wake up.

I absentmindedly pulled my necklace out from under my shirt and started fiddling with it. I still never took it off, and I usually started playing with it when I was worried or nervous. In that case, I was both.

We only had days to figure out how we could save ourselves before Mei, or I, or both of us keeled over. Tech and Claire probably had another week or two left in them, maybe more, but Mei and I weren't doing so hot. I didn't know why the air was affecting us faster; all I knew was that we didn't have very long.

_Okay, ways to get home_, I thought for the thousandth time. I always came back to the same ideas, but none of them made sense. No matter what I thought of, it wouldn't work, and I always ended up reaching the same conclusion. We needed help outside of our means to get anything done, and the consequences of pursuing that would probably have landed us in an even worse situation than we were already in, which was not an easy task.  
_  
If only we could send a message to the rest of the guys telling them where we were_, I thought wistfully. Then, something clicked in my head.

_Send a...message._

I shot up to my feet and walked to the end of the alley. I cautiously peeked out, and after seeing no one, I carefully made my way down the street. I was still up for doing this easy task, and I was the only one who could get it done, anyways. If I waited for everyone to wake up, we'd have to wait until tomorrow, and that could potentially be too late, so I had to act now. It was too important to wait, anyway.

_I knew how to get home!_

**A/N: Yay! Something good for a change! So, next chapter will be a good one, so look forward to it! R&R!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Again, it's shorter than I thought it would be. And again, I got this up a day later than I wanted. =**l **Oh, well. So, anyways, the first part of this chapter explains what happened to the part of the team that was in the future, and the second part explains what happened to the part that was in the past! It's good news… You know- for the most part.**

**I had a little trouble while posting this, so if anyone notices any major errors, tell me and I'll fix it when they fix the site.  
**

_May 6, 2775  
_  
**Celeste's POV  
**  
Velvet's plan had worked like a charm. All we had to do was get the Loonatics and L5 in small groups and they dropped like flies. The fact that almost all of them couldn't see what they were doing wasn't a bad thing, either. It took us less than twelve hours to get them all, and we could finally move along with our list of things to do without worrying about interference from the Loonatics and L5.

Sure, we could've just left them in the future, but the way we saw it, the part of the Loonatics that we didn't send to the future the first time around, Ace, Tech, and Sive, and the part of the L5 that we sent to the past the first time around, Wolfe, Psycho, one of the twins, and Claire, got back somehow, so they probably could have found a way to get back to the past. Velvet's plan was to bring them in small groups to the time we were in, knock them out, and then contain them in her base so they couldn't interfere with us. Getting them there was easy thanks to an adjustment Ceci made to her time machine that made it suck in everything close enough. I would've just killed them, but Velvet liked to gloat, and she wanted them to see the destruction she would eventually cause, so I wasn't going to rain on her parade. It's not like there was anything at that point that could go wrong.

There _were_four others from the Loonatics and L5 that we hadn't gotten yet, but after hearing just how far back Ceci sent them, we reasoned that we wouldn't even have to bother with them. Based on what I knew about that time, they wouldn't be around for very long, anyways, and there was no way they could get back, either.

Even so, I decided to leave a few shadow walkers at the L5's HQ back in the year 2939, just in case.

We were containing the Loonatics and L5 in a section of a room in Velvet's base. It was essentially one long, not particularly wide room, and Ceci had installed one very dim light inside. There was only one door to get in and out, and about two thirds in was a floor to ceiling set of jail-like bars. Ceci assembled them a day earlier out of a Curium-based metal. It wasn't Curium 247, so it didn't steal their powers, but it was potent enough to make sure that they couldn't use them if they were anywhere in that room.

Now that all of that was taken care of, all we needed to do was figure out a few details before we continued. In a few days' time, Velvet would have her bio-converter, and we would both get what we wanted.

**xoxoxoxox**

_May 6, 2775_

**Tech's POV**

"Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech-Tech!" Claire shouted quickly as she roughly (and rapidly) shook me awake. I imagined the feeling to be similar to that of being woken by a machine gun.

"I'm up! I'm up! I'm up!" I shouted back, shaking her off. I looked up at her, and she looked back at me with a frantic expression. She said something to me, but for the life of me, I couldn't understand her; she was talking way too fast. "Slow down and say that again," I ordered calmly. She took as deep a breath as possible without breaking into a coughing fit before continuing.

"Mei's-gotten-way-worse," Claire stated slower. Mei was lying down a bit behind her, and she didn't look so good. She looked weak, and she was breathing hard. "I-think-she-only-has-a-day-or-two-left," Claire quietly told me. As if to make Claire's point, Mei started coughing loudly, and Claire went over to help her.

_I hope Sive's not like that,_I thought as I looked around. I didn't see her, and I sat up and looked around again, as if hoping to see her randomly appear out of nowhere, which she had a knack for doing sometimes, but much to my dismay, she still wasn't there.

"Where's-?" I began, then I caught Claire and Mei's worried expressions.

"Tech," Claire began, "Sive's-gone."

The ensuing silence was stifling. I wasn't really sure how to react; I had a lot of emotions running around my head. I felt upset, confused, and hopeless for the rest of us all at the same time. I think my brain settled on shock.

"I-woke-up-this-morning-and-she-wasn't-here," Claire continued. "I-don't-know-where-she-could-have-gone."

"_Oh_-! You mean _she_-? Oh, God..." I said. For a moment, I thought that Claire had meant _dead_-gone, not _missing_-gone. Even so, it was a small comfort. I ended up being more confused and worried than anything else.

I stood up and started walking towards the end of the alley.

"Where-are-you-going?" Claire asked as she ran out in front of me to block my path.

"We have to find her," I stated matter-of-factly.

"Tech-there-are-people-out-there-right-now!" Claire reminded me. "We-can't-just-go-walk-out-there-we'll-be-seen!"

"But we have to find Sive!"

"Keep your shirt on! I'm right here!" a hoarse voice called behind us. I spun around and saw Sive sticking her head out of the wall of the building next to us (which was thankfully abandoned.) She walked completely through the wall and back into the alley.

"_Sive_!" Claire shouted excitedly as she ran up to hug her. Then she punched her in the arm.

"_Ow_!" Sive exclaimed, holding her arm. "What was that for?"

"For-not-telling-us-where-you-were-going-and-scaring-us-half-to-death!" Claire replied indignantly. I probably would have done something similar if Claire hadn't already.

"You'll be taking that punch back in about-" Sive looked at her watch. "10 seconds."

"What are you talking about?" Mei asked hoarsely, sitting up off the ground.

Sive didn't have to answer. A familiar, bright, teal light appeared at the opposite end of the alley and stayed there. We all looked at it, back at each other, then at Sive, who was smirking at us.

"I will laugh at the looks on your faces when I can breathe again," Sive stated with an almost straight face. She walked up to the portal, but the rest of us still hadn't moved an inch. "Are you guys just going to stand there or do you want to go home?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Mei replied excitedly. She tried getting up, but slipped. Claire caught her and helped her into the portal.

I walked up to Sive and started to ask, "How did you-?"

"You'll see," she interrupted as Claire walked into the portal.

"Ladies first," I said. She gave a quick laugh before coughing a bit, walked in, and disappeared. I followed her in.

It wasn't the almost-being-ripped-apart sensation of Ceci's time machine, but the endless-falling-in-a-windstorm sensation of Chroniker's. The fact that we weren't being led anywhere by Ceci was comforting, but I had no idea how Chroniker knew when to find us, which made me skeptical about whether it was really him or not.

My skepticism vanished as I landed on my feet in the familiar room in Chroniker's lab where the time machine was. Sive, Claire, and Mei had landed in front of me. The portal closed behind us, and we all took a deep breath; something we hadn't been able to do the past few days. Then, Claire, Mei, and I looked back at Sive with very confused expressions, which made her laugh at us.

"Are you all alright?" a voice called from behind the computers used to control the time machine. Then, none other than Dr. Chroniker came out from behind it and approached us in his wheelchair.

"We're all fine," I replied, still stunned by the recent developments, "but how-?" It appeared as if no one would let us ask that question.

"This was sheer _brilliance_ on your part," Chroniker said to Sive. "I would _never_have thought of doing what you did."

"Doing-wha-?" Claire started before she was cut off.

"Oh, it was nothing, really," Sive replied. "It was so stupid-simple; I can't believe someone else didn't think of it earlier!"

"Think-of-wh-" I got out before I was interrupted.

"Well, just be happy you did," Chroniker replied, "because by the sound of all of your voices, you wouldn't have lasted much longer with that air quality." We were all a bit hoarse at that point.

"_What did she do_?" Claire and I shouted, finally getting Sive and Chroniker's attention. Mei looked as confused as we were, but she didn't have the voice to shout at that time.

"This," Chroniker replied, pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to me. It was a letter written on the synthetic, paper-like substance used in the 2200's, which was why it hadn't decomposed. I held it so that Claire could read it, too.

_Dr. Chroniker,_

This is from Sive, from the Loonatics. Long story short, Ceci sent us to the year 2280, and now we're stuck here. The air quality will kill us in a matter of days, and you're the only one who can help us get home. We're stuck exactly 495 years behind you, and as I'm writing this, it is 6:54 AM. I've enclosed this letter inside of another envelope containing explicit instructions on where and when this should be sent. It should reach you May 5, 2775, giving you ample time to prepare the time machine. We need you to pick us up on May, 6, at 7:15 AM. (She then proceeded to give ample instructions as to exactly where we were.)

Here's hoping that this reaches you.

-Sive

"I was very surprised yesterday morning," Chroniker said, "when a large group of postmen came to my door with the strangest story I've ever heard. They were apparently holding that for almost 500 years with, as stated in the letter, explicit instructions as to where and when to send it. They supposed time travel was involved since a) I'm the leading source of temporal science on the planet and b) Acmetropolis wasn't _called_Acmetropolis back then, and there was no way to predict that it would be. They were hoping I would show them what was inside, but I shooed them away before opening it, and I was rather shocked after I read it. I set to work right away afterwards."

"Wait... You sent Chroniker...a _letter_?" Mei asked skeptically.

"Stupid-simple, right?" Sive asked.

"How did you do it without being seen?" I asked.

"It was easy. I just had to phase through the walls of the post office and it was smooth sailing from there. I did have to go before it opened, though, so that's why I left right as I figured it out. I wasn't sure if all of us could wait another day. Besides; I was the only one who could get inside without being detected."

I was amazed that she had thought to do that, and even a little impressed. I was also kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier. That was my main problem; I always overcomplicated things.

Claire, meanwhile, had a pouty look on her face. I wondered why she wouldn't be happy at a time like this, and she caught my questioning glance.

"I'm-just-mad-that-I-didn't-think-of-that-first," she stated.

"Hey guys?" Mei said, getting everyone's attention. "I'm happy to be home and all, but shouldn't we go and get the others back in the future sooner than later?"

Mei was right. If they weren't with Chroniker already, then it meant that they hadn't gotten their time machine working, which wasn't surprising considering how Claire and I were the only ones who really knew what we were doing. We needed to get to the time we were in now in order to find Celeste, Ceci, and Velvet, anyways. Having Chroniker's machine at our disposal wasn't a bad idea, either.

"Dr.-Chroniker-if-you-can-open-a-portal-to-2939-in-our-HQ-then-I-can-go-grab-everyone-real-quick," Claire stated.

"I can do that," Chroniker replied. "Everyone else; stand back."

We all retreated to the edge of the room, except for Claire. Chroniker went back to the computer and opened up another portal, which Claire promptly ran into. Chroniker kept it open, seeing as it was going to be a quick trip.

It was a lot quicker than we thought it would be. Claire ran back through about two minutes later screaming "CLOSE-THE-PORTAL-CLOSE-THE-PORTAL!" at the top of her lungs. Chroniker couldn't close it fast enough. A trio of shadow walkers walked out of the portal right as it closed.

"Duck!" Sive yelled to Claire, who immediately hit the deck as Sive whipped a bolt of electricity at the shadow walkers. They disappeared instantly.

"What happened?" Mei croaked as Claire got back to her feet.

"I-got-there-and-ran-around-looking-for-everyone-but-they-were-gone-and-those-things-were-the-only-ones-there," Claire explained, still a little out of breath.

"So, this means that Celeste was busy while we were gone, huh?" Sive asked.

"They're really all gone?" Mei asked in disbelief.

"No-one-was-there," Claire confirmed.

There was a moment of silence before Chroniker asked, "What will you do, now?"

None of us were sure. We didn't have any idea where our teammates were; they could have been dead for all we knew. All I knew was that we had to do something to stop Celeste, Ceci, and Velvet, team or no team. If they really were gone, they would still have wanted us to stop them, and I knew just how to ruin their day.

"Remember what Ceci said about using the time machine to take the bio-converter for Velvet right before she sent us back through time?" I asked. Sive, Claire, and Mei nodded. "We need to stop them from getting it. If Velvet _and _Celeste get their hands on it, the results could be catastrophic."

"How are we supposed to stop them, exactly?" Sive asked. "We don't exactly have the upper hand, here."

"Simple," I replied. "We take the bio-converter before they do."

**A/N: I just realized something! There isn't that far to go with this story. Like, 5-or-so chapters left before the end. :( …Anyways, next chapter's up…actually, I have no idea when the next chapter is going to get up. I probably won't be able to finish it over the week, and I'm working on a group project over the entire weekend (because one guy _refused_ to help us with figuring out what we were doing!) …So, it's anybody's guess when it'll get up. I'll try for Friday, but no promises. R&R!**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Sorry this was so late, but I've been so freaking busy… I literally think I'm going to die before this week is over… DX The bad news is that I probably won't be able to get another chapter up until next week. I don't really have any good news, though… Anyways, the second part of this chapter is just filler. I'm not denying it. The first part is kinda fluffy… XD **

_May 7, 2775_****

**Sive's POV**

Tech and I had gone back to our HQ to get some supplies. Since we were in the same time as Celeste, Ceci, and Velvet, we decided we would have to be careful and give no sign that we were there. We were going to stay with Chroniker for the time being; staying at our HQ was not the thing to do if we were trying to keep our presence unknown. We weren't even going to tell Zadavia we were there. Well, at least not until we got back to Chroniker's.

I was looking around for stuff in the lab, while Tech was grabbing stuff from his room. He apparently kept a lot of his inventions in there. He kept plenty of stuff in the lab, though, and I was having trouble sorting through it all.

What we needed were the night vision contact lenses (if we were dealing with Velvet, we'd need them,) tracking devices (to both keep track of each other should anything happen and possibly use to keep track of other things should the need arise,) and a way to communicate with each other. Tech's and my communicators worked since we were in our time, but Claire's and Mei's didn't, and we would probably need to stay in contact with Chroniker, too. Tech said he had the communication issue solved and was looking for it in his room, and I was looking for the night vision lenses and tracers.

I was kneeling on the floor, rummaging through a low cabinet, not having much luck in finding the lenses. Tech said that they were in a small box labeled 'Night Vision,' but I had yet to see it, or any other box for that matter. The cabinets were filled with anything from random parts from machines to beakers filled with strange colored substances that I was afraid to go near. It made me wonder what the heck Tech did in there.

"Hey, Sive!" Tech suddenly called, making me jump and hit my head on top of the cabinet. I didn't hear him come in, and he startled me.

I pulled myself out and rubbed the back of my head as Tech ran up behind me.

"Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to scare you!" he said as he knelt down next to me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright, Tech," I reassured him. "It's not the first time I've hit my head." I started looking back in the cabinet and said, "I haven't found the lenses, yet. I know you said they were in one of these cabinets..."

"Here, I'll help you," he said as he opened the cabinet next to me and started rummaging around. There wasn't anything separating the two cabinets on the inside, and with the added light, I could now see the very back of the cabinet, which was where the box was.

Tech saw it, too, and he reached for it just as I did. Our hands bumped into each other, and we both recoiled and quickly said, "Sorry" at the exact same time. Tech reached forward again, grabbed the box, and pulled it out. I pulled myself out of the cabinet and closed the door just as Tech blew dust off of the top of the box.

"We haven't used these for a long time," Tech commented. "They still work, though."

"Let's hope so; they're all we've got. Did you figure out the communications thing?"

"I did, actually," Tech said, standing up and putting the box on a table while grabbing something else to show me. He handed it to me, and it was a small, heavy, rectangular plastic box with a short, thick antenna, a small speaker, a few buttons, and a dial. "We don't have spare communicators around, but I remembered that I had these."

"Uh... What is it?" I asked, turning it over in my hand. I had never seen anything like it before, and it was intriguing.

"It's a walkie-talkie," he replied, holding up a few more of them. I still had no idea what it was. "It's a pretty outdated device, but it'll work perfectly in this situation. It creates its own, small radio-field that only allows other walkie-talkies on the right channel to communicate with it. They haven't been used, made, or sold for years, but these should still work in any time we're in."

"How did you get them if they haven't been sold?" I asked, still inspecting the strange device.

"My dad saved them from when he used them when he was a kid. My siblings and I used to have a lot of fun with these when we were little. We would go hide somewhere and try using the walkie-talkies to either look for each other or avoid each other as we ran around the neighborhood. Anyways, I found them at my parents' place a few years ago. My dad let me keep them, and I fixed them up, but I had no idea what they would be useful for. I'm glad I kept them, now."

I smiled and started looking for the tracers. Tech hardly ever talked about his family, but when he did, he always spoke fondly about them. He had a way of talking about it that made others happy.

"They're in here," Tech said after he realized what I was looking for. He pointed towards a large, metal cabinet built into the wall. He opened it to reveal a bigger mess than Duck's room. "I, uh, kind of throw things in here that we hardly ever use anymore," he explained with a nervous laugh. "They're...right here."

He pointed towards a medium-sized blue box lodged behind something that looked oddly like a torpedo. Moving anything in there was tricky; one wrong move and everything would fall.

"Let's see..." Tech muttered, trying to figure out a way to get to the box without causing a massive avalanche. "If you hold that while I hold that... No, that won't work. But maybe if you hold that while I hold that _and_ that, then you could... No, no, that won't work, either..."

I lightly pushed him aside and reached into the cabinet, using my phasing powers to get to the box. I picked it up and phased it out, quickly grabbing it with my other hand so I wouldn't drop it. It was a lot heavier than I thought it would be.

"Or you could just do that," Tech said as I placed it on the table.

"You've got to stop overcomplicating things," I said to him jokingly.

"Right as you teach me the art of oversimplifying," he replied in an equally joking tone. He opened the box, and I realized why it was so heavy. It was separated into six different sections, each of which containing dozens of small, some almost microscopic, electronic devices.

"What is all this stuff?" I asked as I picked up and inspected something that looked like a miniature Frisbee.

"Tracers, listening devices, cameras, small speakers... Pretty much anything and everything to do with sneaking around and spying on people."

"I'm not sure if I want to know why you have this stuff..." I said as I put back the miniature Frisbee and feigned a nervous look at Tech. He laughed in response.

"Probably not," he replied as he closed the box and picked it up. He also grabbed a few walkie-talkies before walking out, and I grabbed the rest of them and the night-vision lenses as I followed.

"Do you think this will work?" I asked as we walked back to the living room so we could take the elevator out. We had figured out a plan on how we would get the bio-converter earlier, and frankly, I was nervous. There were a lot of places where something could have gone wrong, most of which involving me.

"It had better," Tech replied. "If it doesn't..." He didn't have to finish. If it didn't work, there would be serious hell to pay, but there was no other way to do this that we could see.

We passed through the living room on our way out, and something caught my eye. It was a photo sitting on a table that I had passed by many times without thinking twice. This time, I shuffled what I was holding around so I could pick up the photo and look at it. It was a pretty simple photo of the whole team, Ace, Lexi, Tech, Rev, Slam, Duck, and I, standing together and smiling, but it really meant something when I thought I might never see almost all of them again.

I heard Tech walk up behind me, and he put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"I wish we knew what happened to them..." I said wistfully.

"We'll find them, Sive," Tech reassured me. "We'll stop Velvet, Ceci, and Celeste, and then we'll figure out where they are. Knowing Ceci, she'll probably tell us the next time we see her."

I gave a slight smile at Tech's effort to comfort me as I put the picture down. He had been trying to keep my spirits up through this whole experience, and I needed to remember to thank him for it later.

Tech must have seen the crestfallen look on my face, because he put down everything he was holding on a table, clasped both of my shoulders, and turned me around so I was facing him.

"Sive, everything is going to be alright. Just wait and see; the whole team will be back together in no time."

I wanted to believe him. I really did, but my common sense kicked in, and it was telling me that the odds were against us. In that situation, with the evidence that we had, the odds that something good had happened to everyone while we were stuck in the past were practically non-existent.

"Tech, I-"

"Don't worry," he interjected. "They're survivors. We all are. We're the best team I've ever seen, and nothing bad is going to happen to any of them, any of us, so long as another one of us has anything to say about it. There are six of them, and the two of us. Throw in the L5, and we've all got three to ten others watching our backs, depending on which group you're in. None of us need to worry too much with those kinds of numbers."

He did have a convincing argument, and it made me feel a bit better about the whole situation, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach.

"But Tech-" I started.

"Do you really want to argue numbers with me?" Tech interrupted, feigning seriousness. I couldn't help myself; I started laughing, and Tech laughed with me.

Just then, Tech's communicator beeped, and we quieted ourselves so he could answer it. He set it to speaker phone so we could both hear.

"Are-you-guys-coming-back-or-not-because-we-really-need-to-get-moving-on-this-plan," Claire said.

"We were just heading back," Tech replied.

"Well-hurry-it-up-we-have-work-to-do!" After that she hung up.

"She can be more impatient than Rev," I said as Tech moved to pick up the stuff he put on the table. He picked it up to reveal his laptop sitting underneath the pile, and he picked it up too.

"Might as well bring it," he said in response to my questioning glance. "You never know when you might need a laptop."

I shrugged and headed out the door, and I heard Tech follow behind me. In a matter of hours, we would be headed about two weeks into the past so we could get the bio-converter, hopefully before Velvet. It gave me something else to worry about for a while.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Lexi's POV**

I still had little to no idea as to what was going on at that point. All I knew was that we were all locked in some kind of cell that eliminated our powers, left us with a splitting headache, Nega and I had been there for hours after waking up, and the rest of the team had followed not long later. To make matters worse, it was almost pitch black inside the room we were in. We could barely make out silhouettes of each other, much less look for a way to escape. Well, Nega and Laela could, but they both said that there was nothing we could do without our powers.

At that time, Slam and Buzz were trying to force the cell door open, without much success. Whatever it was made of, it was really solid and heavy, and even under the combined strength of the two Tasmanian devils it didn't move an inch.

"Guys, those bars aren't going anywhere," Donny observed. "Save your strength."

"Nuh-uh," Slam grunted in reply as he continued trying to force the door open. Buzz, however, stopped and took a step back.

"Donny right," he said to Slam. "Pointless. We can not break door. Trying get us nowhere." Slam thought about it for a moment, realized he was right, and the two of them sat back down with the rest of us.

"How long do you think we will be stuck here?" Laela asked.

"Anybody's guess," Nega replied. "I'd like to know exactly who's keeping us here. Not that I don't already have a pretty good idea..."

"I still wish we knew for sure what time we were in..." Wolfe said from somewhere behind me.

"Celeste wouldn't risk taking Velvet out of her own time," Nega reasoned. "We're somewhere in your guys' time, probably 2775."

"Not exactly de welcome home I had in mind..." Ace commented sarcastically.

"And now with all of us out of the way, Velvet's going to be able to get the bio-converter easily," Rev pointed out, speaking at regular speed without his powers. We had completely forgotten about the bio-converter, and because we still had no idea what Velvet was going to use it for, we all immediately assumed the worse.

"And since we're stuck in here, there's nothing we can do to stop them," I stated grimly.

"Aw, come on, guys! There has to be _something_ we can do to get out of here!" Donny exclaimed. "...Mei, Claire, Tech, and Sive are still free!"

"Not to mention stuck hundreds of years in the past," Duck added. We had pretty much given up hope on finding them at that point. If we were stuck there, then the L5's time machine wouldn't get finished. Chroniker wouldn't know what happened to us, either. All-in-all, the situation couldn't get much worse than it was at that point.

"So, then what should we do for the time being?" Rev asked.

"...Anyone want to play 'I Spy'?" Psycho asked. I heard a loud smack. "_Ow_!"

"Sorry, didn't see you there," Nega said sarcastically. "Seeing how it's _dark_ and all."

Everyone was joking around a bit to keep spirits high. We all knew how bad our situation was, though. We just didn't want to think about it.

**A/N: I almost forgot something! To MileyLonnaticsFan96, that's EXACTLY what it is! XD I'm glad somebody caught that! I had actually written my outline before seeing Part II, but once I saw it, I knew exactly how I should go about doing it! And if you keep an eye out, there will be at least one other reference to Part II… (it's my fave of the three!) XD R&R!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: WOW this is a long one! And sorry this is so late, but I've been super stressed this month, and it's still not over yet, and I think I'm going to die because I have finals next week, so I probably won't get another chapter up until after that… (Is it obvious that I got no sleep last night? DX) Anyways, next chapter is up who-knows-when. I know I've been saying that a lot, but this has been a pretty crappy month for me, and I'm about to fall apart at the seams, so please cut me some slack! DX**

In other news, this chapter includes what happens with Claire, Mei, Tech, and Sive as they try getting the bio-converter. And just so everybody knows...there will be at least one fluff moment per chapter from here on out. I am about 97.8% certain about that. I really wish I put in more fluff moments in this story, but there were opportunities to do it in the beginning of the story, and now at the end, but there weren't that many in the middle, and there was a _**lot**_** of middle. Anyways…read on!**

_May 7, 2775_

**Tech's POV**

Everything was ready. We had all our gear, the time machine was set to the correct date and time, and all we had to do was hope that we would beat Velvet to the bio-converter. Based on the time we chose to take it, there was no way Velvet would beat us to it. We might have tied considering how our target time was the earliest possible time to take it without altering anything in the future, but judging by the fact that it wasn't the easiest time to take it, we figured we would be safe.

There was one other problem with the time we chose. We would have very little room for error; if anything really went wrong, the future would almost definitely be altered. All _three_ of us would have to do our parts perfectly to avoid getting caught, which was where the only major problem with our plan was.

"I'm going," Mei declared adamantly, not listening to Claire's reasoning at all.

"Mei-you're-still-not-fully-recovered-yet," Claire insisted.

"Am too!" Mei exclaimed, but her lie became obvious when she started coughing again after straining her throat from yelling. The rest of us had recovered from the bad air from 2280, but Mei had been a lot worse than anyone else, and she still hadn't completely recovered yet. We didn't want to put her in danger until we knew she could handle it.

Mei, however, had other plans. She crossed her arms and adamantly said, "There's too much at stake here, and it's dangerous. You'll need my help." Just then, I had an idea.

"But if you go," I began, making it up as I went along, "then we won't have any backup."

Sive and Claire looked up at me with confused glances, but Mei thankfully didn't notice them as she looked almost warily at me and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, if we have any problems, say, Velvet capturing us, then we'll need someone to be able to help us."

"Well, when you put it that way..."

Claire smiled at me as Mei reluctantly gave in, and Sive gave me a thumbs up and mouthed "Good thinking" when Mei wasn't looking.

Finally, everything was ready. Chroniker opened the portal with instructions as to exactly when he should open it again, and how long he should keep it open, and we set off.

**xoxoxoxox**

_April 23, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

We had gone about two weeks back in time, to when the bio-converter was moved from our HQ to the train that would take it to a still undisclosed location. We went back a few hours before it was actually moved, and we ended up a bit of a ways away from the place where we would actually take it, but it gave us time to go over the plan again on the way.

Because Tech was actually there when it was moved, we had a first-hand account of what to expect. Tech had told us earlier that the bio-converter was moved in an armored convoy. A police escort was out in front, followed by Rev, then Tech on his Zoomatrix, followed closely by the armored vehicle containing the converter, and Ace followed last on his Zoomatrix. The vehicle the converter was in was the typical vehicle used to transport highly important items; bulletproof, large area in the back, made of solid steel, driven by armed guards, etc. The converter was in a large, impenetrable, security-coded cylinder secured in the back of the vehicle, according to Tech.

We were going to go for it as it passed through a long tunnel. There was a fairly sharp turn that had a lot of construction equipment nearby about half way through the tunnel which was exactly where we would get it. Claire would tell us when the convoy was coming, and then she would run across the top of the entryway to the tunnel just as Rev reached it. He would definitely see her, and because something traveling that fast wasn't a common occurrence, he would definitely chase after her. They traveled at practically the same speed, and Claire would have a head start, so he would never catch her. She would run to an open portal from Chroniker and leave before Rev could see her or the portal.

Tech would then go into the tunnel and wait at the turn. He would stay hidden behind some construction equipment, wait until the Tech from this time passed him, and then he would tell me to get ready on his walkie-talkie. He would tell me when to do my part as the vehicle containing the bio-converter passed him.

I was going to be waiting on top of the tunnel over the turn, right above Tech. When the converter was right under me, Tech would give me a signal, and this was the part I was worried about. I would phase through the roof of the tunnel, drop down, phase through the top of the armored vehicle, then grab the bio-converter on my way through the cylinder, and then exit through the bottom of the vehicle. The plan was that I was going to land on my feet, phase through the back of the car, and run and hide behind some equipment before Ace got there. The problem was that if I was even a little early or a little late, I would miss catching the converter, and we only had one shot at this in this time. We could try again in another time, but doing that could really screw something up. Also, if I didn't stick that landing, then Ace would see me, and things would get a lot worse.

We got to the tunnel about fifteen minutes before the envoy. Claire immediately zipped off to her starting point, and it was just Tech and I there for a minute.

"This should be relatively easy," he said.

"Easy for you to say," I replied. He gave me a questioning look. "If you screw up, then everything won't fall apart around you. We could potentially get another shot."

"Ahh... I really don't think you have anything to worry about. You have a knack for good timing."

I was confused for a moment, until I realized that he thought my main worry was missing the converter on my way down. I _was_ worried about that, but it wasn't what I was most worried about. "No, I'm more worried about the landing. If I screw it up, then the past Ace will see me, and who knows how the future can be altered as a result?"

"You'll do fine," Tech reassured me. "I've seen you land longer jumps."

"But never through moving vehicles while trying to grab something right as I land," I added.

Tech thought for a moment before saying, "I see where you're coming from, but you have nothing to worry about. You'll be fine, and if you miss the converter, we'll just try again."

"Tech, how can you possibly know that I'll be alright?" I asked skeptically. He was smart, but even after all we had been through with travelling through time, there was no way he could know that. This whole experience was proof that the future wasn't set in stone, and I wasn't exactly in an optimistic mood.

"Because I'll be right there, and so long as I'm around, nothing is going to happen to you," Tech replied matter-of-factly.

I did feel a little better about the whole situation after remembering that Tech would be there. Granted, he would be hiding behind some equipment, but he would still be only about ten feet away throughout the ordeal.

I also felt really happy that he said that, and I would have told him that, but we didn't have any more time to talk. The convoy was going to be there soon, and we had to get into position.

Tech ran into the tunnel as I ran to the top of the hill it was carved into. I then ran along the top of the hill until I reached a small, glass square. Tech had said that it was right above the curve, and that he remembered passing under it as the convoy took the turn. I stood on one side of the glass where I couldn't be seen from anyone below, took my walkie-talkie out of my pocket, and waited.

A couple of minutes later, Claire's voice came through the walkie-talkie. "_THEY'RE COMING_!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"You don't have to shout, Claire. We can hear you fine," Tech replied dryly. Claire's reaction to first seeing the walkie-talkie had been pretty funny; she hadn't known what it was, either, but once Tech told her, she had gone on and on about how she had seen some in museums. She was convinced that they wouldn't work right, even though Tech had told her multiple times that he would, and even demonstrated how they worked. Apparently, she still hadn't been convinced.

"Oh."

I chuckled a little as I lied down on the ground. I was a good ways away from where Claire and Rev would be running, but I would be pretty easy to spot if I was standing up. I would wait for them to pass before moving.

I didn't have to wait long, though. I heard police sirens in the distance, and not long afterward, I saw a streak of blue fly by across the top of the hill where the entrance of the tunnel was, and then a flaming streak of red followed. I stood up, and waited. It would be a few minutes until I had to drop.

During that time, I got all keyed-up again. There were so many things that could happen if I did something wrong, and I tried to not think about it, but I couldn't do it. I was pacing around the glass square, trying to calm my nerves, when my walkie-talkie beeped.

"Sive?" Tech said through his walkie-talkie.

"Yeah?"

"I can hear them coming! Get ready!"

I got into position, and waited. Those thirty seconds felt like hours to me. My heart was pounding, I was nervously clenching my fists, and I was almost trembling. Almost.

"Sive! _NOW_!" Tech suddenly shouted.

I didn't hesitate; I just fell. It was about a 20 foot drop, and it seemed to pass in slow-motion. I looked down as soon as my head cleared the spot I was just standing on, and I saw that I was about to fall on top of the armored vehicle. I went through the top of the car, and just barely caught a glance of the cylinder before going through that, too.

As I passed through the cylinder, I barely caught a glimpse of the coffee-maker-like machine that was the bio-converter. I shot my hands out to grab it, and thankfully, I didn't miss. I grabbed the bio-converter and hugged it close to my chest so I wouldn't drop it as I landed on the ground and went through the back of the vehicle. My timing was perfect. My landing, however, was not.

I slipped.

I landed awkwardly on one foot, and it was all downhill from there. Ace was following far enough behind for him not to see me go through the car, but close enough to give me absolutely no leeway time for getting out of the way. I wouldn't have time to get up, get off of the road, and hide. I was screwed.

Luckily for me, I never hit the ground. It happened in a matter of seconds, and I didn't realize what had happened until it was over. Someone ran out, grabbed me, half-dragged half-carried me across to the other side of the road, and hid the both of us behind a group of oil barrels on the side of the road. I turned my head after we were behind the oil drums, and I saw Tech crouching behind me, but before I could say anything, I heard the sound of an approaching vehicle; Ace.

Tech and I both ducked lower as we waited for Ace to pass. I never released my death-grip on the converter, and Tech never released me. Neither of us moved at all as Ace passed, not that we really could if we wanted to; the oil drums were really close to the wall. Tech and I were right up against each other as it was.

Ace seemed to pass agonizingly slow, even though he was doing at least 30. Even after we passed, and we couldn't hear him anymore, Tech and I waited an extra moment or two before letting out a breath neither of us realized we were holding.

I loosened my grip on the bio-converter as Tech looked down at me. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," I replied, still a little breathless. "Thanks."

"I said that I wouldn't let anything happen to you," he replied dismissively. That wasn't exactly what he said, but I understood him all the same.

"You have to stop saving my skin like this," I told him. "One of these days, it's going to get you killed."

"Considering how it's almost impossible to kill me, I'll take my chances," he replied jokingly.

We sat there in silence for a moment, neither of us wanting to say anything. Then I remembered something.

"Uh, Tech? Should we maybe get going?" I asked. We had a portal with our names on it waiting for us near the entrance of the tunnel, and it would only be open for a certain amount of time.

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Tech said as he remembered the portal. He started standing up, then he realized that he still had his arm around my waist from when he pulled me out of the way. He pulled his arm back with a slight nervous laugh, and I smirked and repressed the urge to roll my eyes as I stood up with the converter and walked back onto the road.

"Do you want me to carry that?" Tech asked as he walked around the barrels.

"No, I got it," I replied as we started walking down the tunnel to the exit. It was very gentlemanly of him to ask, but I was alright.

We didn't talk most of the way back, but I was deep in thought about something. Tech noticed and said, "What're you thinking about?"

"It's just...technically speaking, this is the day all of this started, when Ceci attacked us at HQ. It's weird to think about. It's even weirder to think that we're in a similar situation now..."

"We are?"

"Well, yeah. Then, er, now, we had no idea what had happened to the rest of the team, and now, er- oh, you know what I mean!- now, we don't know what happened to them again..."

"There is one difference," Tech said. I looked at him questioningly. "Now we at least know what's going on."

That was something. Last time, we had been completely in the dark. Now, we knew what was happening and why. Well, we had a general idea, anyway.

We reached the end of the tunnel, rounded a corner, and in a small, natural alcove, there was the unmistakable teal light of one of Chroniker's portals. And we hadn't seen any sign of Velvet.

For once, we seemed to have the upper hand.

**xoxoxoxox**

_April 24, 2775_

**Velvet's POV**

I had figured that the easiest time to take the converter was right after it left the city. That didn't happen until a day after it was moved, which was just fine for me. No one would expect anyone to try anything by then. So, I had Ceci open a portal for me to the correct time so I could take it. Ceci came with me, but Celeste opted to stay behind. After experiencing time travel, it was no mystery why.

I told Ceci to stay away from the train; considering how she wasn't from our time, it was probably better for her to stay hidden. I could handle this on my own, anyways.

The train itself was armored, but with my shadow boys, getting inside would be a piece of cake. There were only a few armed guards inside, but they would be easy to deal with as well.

I was waiting for the train in the shade of the track overhead. It was a dark, cloudy day, so I wasn't completely blinded, but it was still unpleasant. The train would pass over the bridge directly overhead, and that was when we would strike. We weren't sure of exactly when it would come, though, and I was getting annoyed with the thought of a long wait. Ceci's constant chattering didn't help, either.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait very long. The train went thundering overhead a few minutes later, and we all (minus Ceci) took off. I didn't have the comforting darkness of the cloud that usually accompanied me, but I flew next to the train underneath my shadow boys, so they blocked out most of the light.

We had been able to figure out which car of the train the bio-converter was in thanks to a thermal image from Ceci. She wasn't good for much, but she did have her moments. Thanks to the image, I didn't have to waste time searching through the whole train. There was one spot the scanner couldn't read, which meant that there was something there that the scanner couldn't get through. It didn't take a rocket scientist to tell that was the container holding the converter.

The train had no windows, so it was easy to fly up to it undetected. I landed on top of the car holding the converter with a few of my shadow boys, while the rest of them broke into two groups and landed on the cars on either side of me. They would hold off the rest of the guards while I took the converter.

"Have at it boys," I said, unleashing all-out chaos on the train.

It only took my shadow boys half a minute to break a hole in the roof and drop into the cars. There was a brief moment of wild shooting coming from inside as the guards tried defending themselves, but they were totally surprised. I waited a moment for the shooting to stop, then I lightly flew into the train car.

I floated above the ground in front of a large, metallic cylinder and looked around. My shadow boys were surrounding two now unarmed guards, who both appeared to be unconscious. Two of them were hacking away at the cylinder.

"Be careful not to touch the converter!" I ordered the two at the cylinder. I wasn't going to risk either of them damaging it. They briefly nodded and continued hacking away.

It took them a few minutes, but they eventually broke through the cylinder. They stepped back, and I floated over to the hole, reached inside, and immediately pulled my hand back and peered into the hole. The area inside of the cylinder was just big enough to fit the converter. However, the converter was nowhere to be found.

I screamed in annoyance, making my shadow walkers look at me curiously. The converter was gone, and if it wasn't there, then that meant that someone had stolen it before me in a way that went undetected until now.

That _really_ ticked me off.

I returned to the bridge where Ceci was waiting, and to make my mood worse, her annoying voice immediately grated on my ears.

"Where is it? Did you get it? I wanna see it!" she exclaimed as she flew around me like an annoying insect.

"I did _not_ get it!" I snapped. She stopped in front of me with a confused look on her face. "Just send us back to our, er, _my_ time! I'll explain there."

She nodded, turned around, and opened a portal. My shadow boys went through first, and I made sure to hold my breath that time before going in.

Immediately as I came out on the other side, Celeste approached and asked, "Did you get it?"

I was very frustrated by that point, so I shouted, "_No_, I did _not_ get it!"

I didn't get that angry that often, and Celeste was a little taken aback. "Well, what happened?" she asked. I heard Ceci walk up behind us, which was good considering how I didn't want to have to explain myself twice.

"Everything went according to plan! We got in, got rid of the guards, and broke into the case holding the converter," I explained. "But when we got into the case, the converter wasn't there! Someone took it before us without anyone detecting the converter's disappearance."

"But who else would want it?" Celeste asked. "I thought you said you were the only one interested in it."

"As far as I knew, I was," I replied. "I don't know of anyone from around here who has the ability to take the converter without anyone noticing. Most, if not all of the other villains like to make a scene..."

"Maybe a new villain is coming on the scene?" Ceci ventured. Neither Celeste nor I felt like giving her a reply. Celeste looked as if she hadn't heard her, anyway; she appeared to be deep in thought.

"...Ceci," she began after a moment, "where did you send the rest of the Loonatics and L5?"

I had almost forgotten about that. Four of them were still loose, but Celeste had said that they were so far back in the past, we didn't have to worry about them.

"Oh, 22-something..." Ceci replied. "Why?"

"I want you to go and check on them," Celeste said. Both Ceci and I shot her questioning looks. "Don't let them see you, just go make sure they're still there. Look around the area you dropped them at; they won't have gone far."

"Whatever you say..." Ceci replied, still unsure of why Celeste was having her do it. I was unsure for a moment, too, until I remembered something. The Loonatics' new team member could phase through solid objects. She could have pulled off taking the converter.

Ceci was gone for only a minute to us, but she looked tired and ragged when she came back. She had probably been away for a few hours, at least. She landed heavily on the floor and sat down, very much out of breath.

"_Well_?" Celeste snapped.

"They're...gone..." she gasped.

That confirmed Celeste's suspicions; the Loonatics had taken the converter. That still left us with a lot of questions, though.

"Why would they want it so bad, they had to steal it?" I asked. "_How_ did they even steal it? And how did they get back, anyway?"

"I'm not sure on the 'how's of it, but if they knew we wanted it, then they would have taken it to keep us from getting it," Celeste reasoned. "But how would they have known we wanted it?"

Ceci laughed nervously on the floor. I looked at her curiously, but Celeste looked at her accusingly.

"I, uh, might have...said something about that...to them...before sending them through time," Ceci admitted nervously.

"You _what_?" Celeste screeched.

"Well this changes things..." I stated. "How are we going to get it back?" My plan revolved around the converter. Without it, the whole thing would go up in smoke.

Celeste thought a moment, looking completely stoic, and then her face lit up with a devilish grin.

"I think I have an idea..."

**A/N: Uh-oh! Celeste has an idea! That's **_**never **_**a good thing! 0.0 XD But, like I said, I won't be updating until after next week because of semester finals. DX Until then, R&R!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: I'm sorry this is so late! I was going to post this on Saturday, but then there was a slight medical emergency involving stairs, a cell phone, toe socks, and a piece of toast. Don't ask. Anyways, I hit my head hard enough so that I couldn't think straight for the past few days, and posting this just kind of slipped my mind. But it's up now, so enjoy!**

_May 7, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

"So, why can't Velvet can't just go to another time and get this thing?" I asked as I inspected the bio-converter. It was sitting on a side-table next to the couch I was sitting on. Mei was standing on the opposite end of the table, also inspecting it, and Claire and Tech were sitting in armchairs across from the couch. Chroniker had gone to bed a long time ago.

We had gotten the bio-converter back to Chroniker's without a hitch a few hours earlier, but something had just occurred to me. Velvet could always go further back in time and take the converter, right?

"No-we-have-nothing-to-worry-about," Claire reassured. "If-she-went-further-back-than-we-did-to-get-it-then-not-only-would-she-affect-the-future-but-she-would-also-make-it-so-that-we-didn't-take-it-so-in-a-way-it-would-doubly-affect-the-future." I was very confused by this, and I looked to Tech for help. He was pretty good at translating smart-people jargon.

"There can't be two of the same thing at the same time," Tech explained, never looking up from his laptop. He had been on it ever since we got back, figuring out what we had missed while we were gone. "Velvet going farther back in time than we did to get the converter could screw everything up so much, the fabric of time would unravel."

"Well why didn't you just say so?" I asked. Claire stuck her tounge out at me, and I stuck mine out at her in response.

"So, now that we have this thing," Mei began, "what should we do with it?"

"Hide it, keep it away from the forces of evil...all that jazz," I replied through a yawn.

"Amen to _that_," Mei said as she sat down next to me. A lot had happened in the last two days, and none of us had gotten any sleep through any of it. It was starting to catch up to us.

We were still staying with Chroniker for the time being. Now that we had the converter, we had to keep it safe, and Velvet, Celeste, and Ceci would inevitably find out it was us who took it, so our HQ still wasn't a safe place. As far as we could see, they hadn't suspected Chroniker helping us as of yet, so his place was as safe as any.

We still needed to figure out what we were doing next, anyways. We had done everything we could do without giving ourselves up in the screwing-with-the-bad-guys department, though that wasn't our main priority anymore.

"Has-anyone-come-up-with-any-ideas-yet?" Claire asked.

"Nope," the rest of us replied in unison. Claire groaned in response.

We had been trying to figure out anything we could do to find the rest of the team. We unsurprisingly hadn't heard a thing from them in the past couple of days, and we were all really worried about them. Finding them had become our main priority, but it wasn't easy. We had spent almost a week way far back in the past, and when we got back, all we knew was that they disappeared without a trace. Well, almost without a trace; our only clue as to what had happened to them was the shadow walkers that Celeste left behind. That meant that whatever happened to them, it was Celeste-related, which was a pretty broad topic. They could have been sent to another time just like we were, or they could still be in the future holed up somewhere for all we knew. And that's thinking positively.

"Maybe we should go to bed and try again in the morning when we're not half asleep," Mei suggested.

"Mei, that is the _best_ idea I've heard all day," I replied.

We all got up and went to our rooms. I felt as if I could sleep for a year, and I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. Unfortunately, I didn't have a year to sleep. I didn't even have more than a few hours, actually; Tech came in and woke me up, and it was still dark outside when he did so.

"Sive! Sive, wake up!" he said as he shook me awake. I could tell by the tone in his voice that something was wrong.

"What's up?" I asked as I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"You need to see this," he said urgently. I looked up at him and saw that he looked pretty freaked out. I had never seen him like that, and it freaked me out a bit, too.

I followed him back to his room, where his laptop was lying open on his bed. I was tempted to ask if he had slept at all, but whatever was going on here seemed to be really important, so I kept quiet.

We sat down next to each other on the edge of the bed, and Tech held the laptop in his lap as he showed me what he wanted to show me, so I had to lean on his shoulder to see. He opened up an email in his inbox, and I read it with silent shock.

_Hello, Tech._

I'm not sure how you did it, but you took something I want, and I intend to get it. If we knew where you were, Celeste would insist on just taking it from you. I, however, am more agreeable than my future counterpart. How about a trade? I believe that I have something you want… I've attached a picture in this email. Interested? Meet us in the alley behind the old hardware store near 46th and 10th tomorrow at 11 PM. Bring the converter.

Oh, and I want you and your other coyote friend to stay behind.

-Black Velvet  
  
"Why doesn't she want us to come?" I asked as soon as I finished reading.

"Because we're threatening to her," Tech replied. "You're essentially a mobile flashlight, and I've played a fairly large role in screwing her up both times we've encountered her."

"So she's afraid of me and thoroughly annoyed of you..." I muttered to myself, still trying to fully wrap my brain around this whole situation. I sighed as I asked, "Do I want to know what she has, or should I just assume the worst?"

"Both," Tech stated grimly as he clicked the link in the email that opened the attached picture. It was dark, but we could make out jail-style bars in the foreground, and through the bars, we could see our teammates. They all looked okay, which was a big relief, but it was a small comfort.

I stared at the picture for a moment, then sighed and said, "We need to show Claire and Mei."

Tech nodded, closed the laptop, and we both stood up. He went to go wake up Claire while I got Mei, and we all met up in the living room. Tech showed them the email and the picture there.

They both sat there in shocked silence for a moment before Mei finally asked, "How do they know your email address?"

"Mei, _totally_ not the time," I stated.

"What-are-we-going-to-do?" Claire asked hopelessly. "We-can't-just-give-them-the-converter-but-we-need-to-help-the-others!"

"Maybe you and Tech could whip up a fake one and we can give them that instead?" Mei suggested.

"I already thought of that, but we don't have enough time to construct a convincing fake," Tech stated. "And besides; this has 'trap' written all over it. I don't think we'd be walking away from this with our teammates, if at all."

"What we need is a plan!" Mei stated determinedly.

"Uh, Mei, in case you haven't noticed, we haven't been too good at coming up with those lately," I reminded her. "...I'm not saying you're wrong, though. We need to figure out what we're going to do, and we don't have a lot of time to do it."

We sat there in silence for a while, trying to think of what to do. Every so often, it looked as if someone was about to speak, but then they kept silent as they saw some hole in their plan.

Claire was the first to break the silence. She had been analyzing the picture on the computer for almost half an hour, when she pointed to it and asked, "What's-that-thing?"

The rest of us looked over her shoulders to see what she was pointing at. It was a large, dark, rectangle in the middle of the door to the cell. It was hard to make out with the dark lighting, but when I stared at it really hard, I could just barely make out a keyhole, meaning that it was the lock. Mei looked as confused as Claire, and Tech was giving me a confused look in response to their confusion, which I shot right back.

"Uh, it's a...lock?" Tech stated with an unsure note in his voice.

"That's a _weird_ looking lock," Mei said. "How do you punch in the code?" Tech and I exchanged another look.

"There's no code... There's a _key_," I stated in a voice that suggested I was teaching a kindergartner the difference between the colors red and blue.

"Oh!" Claire exclaimed. "It's-a-_tumbler_-lock-I've-only-read-about-them-but-I've-never-_seen_-one-before!"

"A _tumbler_ lock?" Mei repeated, still looking very confused.

"We-don't-have-these-in-the-future-we-only-have-electronic-locks," Claire said in response to Tech's and my confusion. "And... If-I'm-remembering-everything-correctly-then-this-might-give-me-an-idea... Let-me-think-for-a-minute."

We left Claire alone as she did the Runner-family version of pacing; running across the room at light speed and back. Tech and I had seen Rev do that multiple times. We just watched her go back and forth until she suddenly stopped in front of us. "Okay-I've-got-something-but-I'm-not-sure-if-everyone's-going-to-like-it."

"What do we have to lose?" Mei asked. "Let's hear it."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Tech's POV**

Claire was right; I didn't like it. I didn't like it one bit. It _could_ work, and it _was_ a good plan, but I still didn't like it.

"This could work... And yet it could go _horribly_ wrong..." Mei said as she thought it over. "And yet, that seems to be the way a lot of our plans work out..."

"I'm-okay-with-it-if-the-rest-of-you-are," Claire stated, looking at the rest of us.

"Hmm...same here," Mei said. We all looked at Sive to see what her decision would be. She would play a big part in Claire's plan, and if she wasn't okay with it, then the whole plan was forfeit.

"...This plan has a better chance of working than failing as far as I can see," Sive said. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right, and I was worried where she was going with this. "...I like it. I'm in."

"You can't be serious!" I exclaimed. Sive, Mei and Claire all looked at me, but unlike the other two, Claire didn't seem surprised. In fact, it looked as if she was expecting me to do that, but I figured I would be less confused if I read into it less. I had noticed that she shot a quick glance over in my direction when she said that everyone may not like her plan, but I wasn't sure if she looked at me or Sive. Now I knew.

"Why _wouldn't_ I be serious?" Sive asked as she faced me and crossed her arms. "Our friends are in danger, and if there's something I can do to help them, I intend to do it!"

"But you're putting _yourself_ in danger!" I exclaimed. I calmed myself down before continuing. "I understand that you want to help, but you need to think of your own well-being, too." I saw Claire shooing Mei out of the room, and Claire following her out of the corner of my eye. Sive didn't catch it, and I didn't dwell on it.

"Tech, what makes you think I'm not thinking of my own well being?" Sive asked, also calming down and looking at me curiously.

"Because you _never_ think of yourself before jumping in," I replied calmly. "You push yourself beyond your limits a lot more than you should, and eventually, you're going to get hurt. I get it; the guys are in danger, and you want to help them. I want to do whatever I can, too, but pushing beyond our limits only does so much good." There was something else I wanted to say, too, but I couldn't figure out how to say it. "I- I just... I care about you, Sive. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Sive seemed taken aback for a moment. She obviously wasn't expecting me to say that, and honestly, neither was I. It came out a bit differently than I intended it to, but I meant it either way. I was a bit worried how she would respond, though.

Sive kept that surprised look on her face for a moment, then she gave me a soft smile. "Tech," she said, "you don't have to worry about me. I know how far I can push before anything bad happens, and I always know what I'm getting into. All that time I spent on my own and fending for myself has given me a pretty good idea on how to handle myself. I know what I can and can't handle, Tech."

I hadn't thought of that before. I had always thought that she blindly ran into situations and just got lucky; I never thought that there could be a method to her madness. And yet, she was right; if there was any single member of our team who could handle themselves, it was her. She did have around eight years of experience, after all.

"I see your point," I began, "but that doesn't mean that I won't worry about you."

"I know," Sive stated, "but the way I see it, anyone else on the team would do the same for me."

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, half in frustration and half because I had gotten next to no sleep. "There's no changing your mind, is there?" I asked after a moment.

"Nope," she stated with a smirk.

"Then let's get to work," I said. "Just…be careful, alright?"

Sive smiled at me, then looked around the room. "Where did-?"

"I sometimes find it better not to ask when Claire is involved," I stated wisely. I knew we would have to go looking for them, but I thought it would be smart not to think about Claire's motives; it just led to more confusion.

Fortunately for us, Claire and Mei walked back into the room right then. "Where did you-?" Sive began, but she was cut off by Claire.

"Okay-so-are-we-doing-this-or-not?" she asked. Sive nodded, and so did I, albeit grudgingly. "Great-okay-so-Tech-you-and-I-can-start-messing-with-the-coverter-and-Mei-can-get-to-work-with-Sive."

"I hope you can work on the fly, Mei," Sive said, "because I need to go back to HQ and grab what I need."

Mei groaned, but still followed Sive as she ran out of the building. Meanwhile, Claire and I got busy disassembling the converter. There was a lot of work to get done, and not a lot of time to do it.

**A/N: Okay, so I can tell you right now that the next chapter will be on the short side, and I will try my hardest to get it done by Friday. Why Friday? Because I'm going up to my uncle's cabin again next week, and there's **_**still**_** no wifi up there. I'll be gone all week, but I'll for sure have a chapter for you when I get back. Or possibly two if I can't get this next one up before then. Anyways, R&R!**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Okay, so I'm leaving, like, RIGHT NOW so I have to keep this short! I'll have the next chapter up within a day or two of my return, and we may be coming back a day or two earlier than we thought due to crummy weather, so expect the next chapter anywhere between Thursday and Saturday.**

_May 8, 2775_

**Black Velvet's POV**

It was 10:55, and the Loonatics would arrive at any minute. Celeste and I were in position; the fun would start when they arrived.

We didn't actually bring the captured members of the Loonatics and L5 with us. We had no intention of setting them free; we just needed a way to bait the other members of the Loonatics and L5 into coming. That was where I saw a flaw in the plan; the Loonatics weren't stupid. It was fairly obvious that this was a trap, and I wasn't even expecting them to show up. Celeste, however, insisted that they would do whatever it took to save their teammates. I hoped she was right; I _really_ wanted that converter.

Celeste didn't like that I told the members of the Loonatics to stay behind, but I thought it was necessary. Tech seemed to always be able to find a way to screw me up, and the other one, Sive, could put me out of commission easily. Celeste wanted to capture all four of them, not just the L5 members, but I assured her that two members of the Loonatics weren't enough to be a threat to us so long as the others were in captivity.

The alley we were meeting at was at the top of a formation of alleys forming an H, and I was waiting near the top right end of it as I paced around, getting more and more anxious as the minutes ticked by. I was going to be the one meeting them when and if they showed up. I had been the one to send the email, after all (how Ceci figured Tech's email address out, I'll never know.)

I stopped pacing and watched as two anthros entered the opposite end of the alley I was in. It was dark, but I could still see them clearly. One of them looked exactly like one of the rabbits we had already captured, but Celeste had told me that there was a set of twins in the L5, so I wasn't too surprised. That one was carrying the converter. The other was a multi-colored roadrunner.

They stopped a ways away from me and the roadrunner asked, "Where-are-our-teammates?"

"They're not in at the moment, but I can take a message," I replied smartly. The bunny looked as if she was about to say something, but a stern glance from the roadrunner kept her quiet.

"You-do-realize-we're-not-giving-you-the-converter-unless-we-get-our-teammates-back-right?" the roadrunner asked.

"You do realize I don't need you to _give_ me the computer," I began, "when I can just _take_ it?"

That was the cue. Celeste was nearby, and as soon as she heard that, she did her part. A bunch of shadow walkers materialized around us in the alley, and Celeste also gave the order for my shadow boys to attack.

"What-happened-to-not-being-disagreeable?" the roadrunner asked nervously as she looked around. They had no way out; they were covered on both sides by our shadow creatures, I was blocking the front, and Celeste had floated into sight and was covering the back. Ceci wasn't there; I had commissioned her to build something for me, and she was working on that back at my base. Celeste and I could handle this easily, anyways.

"Change of heart," I replied coldly as I raised my mechanical arm and prepared to blast them.

It all happened so fast, I didn't realize what had happened until it was all over. The two members of the L5 had stopped at the point where the vertical and horizontal parts of the H met to form a three-way intersection, and they used it to their advantage. The roadrunner split into two differently colored versions of herself; one all blue, the other orange and yellow. The yellow and orange one cupped her hands while the blue one used them as a lift to shoot up into the air. They melded back into one roadrunner as they touched, and she went flying up into the air.

At the same time, the rabbit lobbed the converter at the roadrunner, who caught it easily. She landed beyond the line of shadow creatures in the adjacent alley, and took off running. The rabbit used the distraction to do a leapfrog jump over a shadow walker and then she ran after the roadrunner. They pulled this stunt off in less than five seconds.

"Well don't just stand there!" Celeste screeched after a moment.

"After them!" I ordered as I took off into the air. Celeste followed me, and we amusedly watched the resulting spectacle from the air. We would only get involved if we had to.

The shadow creatures immediately took off after them, and a few more materialized at the opposite end of the section of alley the two anthros were running down, blocking their escape. The rabbit stopped, but the roadrunner split into three; one all yellow, one all orange, and the other all blue. The yellow one handed the rabbit the converter back while the other two kept running. The blue and the orange ones football-tackled a few of the shadow creatures out of the way, clearing a path. The yellow one touched the other two as she passed, melding back into one again, and the rabbit followed. They turned down one end of the alley as some shadow walkers lumbered after them. They were _very_ slow. My shadow boys, on the other hand, had already moved on ahead and were blocking off both exits of the alley.

The roadrunner split into three again and started battling with my shadow boys, and she was able to hold her own easily thanks to her speed. She was knocking out a good number of them while taking barely any hits herself. I hadn't thought of her as a good fighter, but apparently I was wrong.

"Wait..." Celeste started after a moment of watching the fight. "Where's the bunny?"

I sharply took in a breath and wildly looked around as I realized that we had lost sight of the bunny in the fray. She still had the converter; we couldn't afford to lose her.

Then, I barely caught sight of a shadow moving on the opposite end of the alley. All of the shadow creatures were converging around the roadrunners; no one was paying attention to the opposite end of the alley. The roadrunners were just a distraction so the bunny could escape.

"I've got this," I told Celeste as I flew down into the alley ahead of the rabbit.

I could see her clearly now that I was at ground level; she was hiding behind a couple of trashcans, holding the converter. It was impossible for any of the shadow creatures to see her from where they were, and difficult for Celeste to see her where she was, but I was standing behind her, and as far as I could see, she hadn't noticed me, yet.

She cautiously peeked over the top of the trash cans to make sure no one was watching before moving. When she was satisfied that no one was looking her way, she stood up and started walking backwards away from the scene. She turned around, and stopped short when she saw me.

"Going somewhere?" I asked.

Before she could reply, I raised my mechanical arm and fired a strong beam at her. It hit her square in the chest, and she dropped the converter as she went flying backwards into a wall. She hit it hard enough to cause cracks to form in the brickwork before falling to the ground, unconscious. I was getting impatient, and I didn't want to waste more time chasing after her.

I picked up the converter as Celeste landed behind me. "The roadrunner has been taken care of," she informed me, "and by the looks of it, the bunny won't be going anywhere for a while. There's no sign of either of the coyotes, either. Is the converter still in one piece?"

"On the outside, yes," I replied as I looked it over. "I don't want to open it up here to check the internal workings but-" I shook it a bit to let Celeste hear the rattling sound I had heard it make when I picked it up, "-by the sound of it, Ceci's going to have her work cut out for her."

"We'll let her finish what she's working on now first before having her fix that," Celeste said. "Then we can have her do the final assembly. After that...I don't think she'll be of any more use to me."

I smirked and said, "Then let's not waste any time." We turned around to face the assembled shadow creatures. Celeste dispelled her shadow walkers, and I dismissed most of my shadow boys. I left a few behind to bring the unconscious members of the L5 back to my base.

We would still be keeping all of the Loonatics and L5 alive...for now.

**A/N: Everything that just happened will be revealed in the next chapter! R&R!**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: I apologize for this being so late, but my dad got really hurt on our vacation, and he needs surgery, and it's been pretty crazy around here without him to help… DX I know I've been consistently late with my updating lately, and I apologize for it. This just isn't the best time for me…**

**Anyways, this is a SUPER LONG CHAPTER! I didn't intend for it to be this long, but I want all of this in this one chapter, so it's all here. This is probably the longest chapter I've ever done, so I'm kind of hoping that the length of this will make up for the lateness. **

**Just so everyone reading this knows, there are only 2-3 chapters left (depending on the length of the next chapter.) This story has been pretty long… XD**

**One final thing. I meant to say this in my last A/N, but I was rushing, so I'll say it now. All is not as it seems… XD**

_May 9, 2775_  
**  
Lexi's POV**

A few shadow creatures had come in earlier, and much to our surprise, they had dropped off Mei and the three Claires. They were both unconscious, but appeared to be alright. Well, the Claires did, anyway; Mei had been hit pretty hard. She had a bleeding head wound (that had gradually slowed as time passed,) and Laela knew enough about medical stuff to know that she might have some bruised ribs. Tech and Claire were the team medics, and since one wasn't there and the other was incapacitated, and none of the rest of us knew what to do, there was nothing we could do for her. We just hoped she would be alright, and that Claire would wake up soon and help.

But there was one thing that immediately struck us when we saw them; they were _back_. They had somehow gotten back from the past, and they were alive. Granted, Ceci could have used her time machine to bring them back, but where was the sense in that? My main question was, if Claire and Mei were back, then where were Tech and Sive?

It didn't look as if I was going to have to wait long to get my answer; Claire was starting to wake up. Well, her blue copy was, anyway. She had a pained look on her face, and she raised her arms to rub her head.

"Oh, my head!" she moaned as she slowly sat up.

"Claire, are you alright?" Nega asked.

"Ask me again in a few hours," the orange Claire said as she rubbed her eyes.

"You know; after I find some aspirin," the yellow Claire added sarcastically as she, too, sat up. Then, she had a quizzical look on her face. "Is it just me, or are we talking funny?" The other Claires realized this, and nodded.

"The bars keeping us in here are made of some type of curium alloy," Rev explained. "They subdue our powers so long as we're near them, and for some odd reason it affects our voices, too."

"Well that explains the headaches..." the orange Claire said. "Well, _partly_, anyway."

"Glad to see you're okay," Wolfe said as he sat down next to the blue Claire. "Well, more or less, anyway. We were starting to worry that we'd never see you again."

"Why would you...?" the blue Claire began. "Oh, yeah...you didn't know that we got un-stuck from the past."

"How did you pull that one off?" Duck asked. "Did you and Tech slap together another time machine or something?"

"Actually, Sive- wait, are we being listened to?" the yellow Claire asked suspiciously.

"Nope, we're good," Nega replied.

"Okay, then. So, long story short, Sive thought to send a letter to Chroniker from the past with explicit instructions on where and when to send it. It all worked out, and here we are."

"So Tech and Sive are here too?" I asked excitedly. "Are they okay?"

"Oh, yeah, they're here," the orange Claire replied. "All four of us came back, still in one piece." That took a load off of my mind.

"So, uh...what exactly happened to you?" Wolfe asked.

There was a mix of reactions among the Claires. One of them, the orange one, suddenly snapped her head up and looked at the other two with a shocked expression. Another one, the yellow one, shot to her feet and wildly looked around the dimly lit room. The last one frantically started searching her pockets for something. It was pretty bizarre.

"Uhh...Claire? What are you doing?" Psycho asked. All three answered him at once, and no one seemed to understand what they said. "Okay, try that again, but one at a time."

The Claires stopped what they were doing, touched each other, and melded back into one. Claire didn't stop searching herself as she asked, "Where's Si- er, Mei?" The rest of us were very confused; this was strange behavior, even for Claire.

"She's over here," Donny replied from way to our right. He had been silent ever since Claire and Mei arrived after he had his initial freak-out over seeing Mei alive, then realizing what condition she was in. He hadn't left her side since; he was really worried about her.

Claire immediately stopped her search for whatever she was looking for and shot to her feet. She made her way over to Donny and Mei, careful not to step on anyone, and sat down next to them. Donny was sitting up against the wall, and had Mei's head in his lap. He had ripped off some of the fabric from the sleeve of his shirt and was holding it against the wound on the back of Mei's head.

"_Shit_," I heard Claire whisper to herself (but only because I was sitting so close; my hearing was all out of whack.) I had never heard Claire swear before. She started checking Mei over for herself.

"Is she going to be alright?" Donny asked nervously.

"I think so," Claire replied reassuringly. "No broken ribs, thankfully, but she'll definitely feel this later. This head wound isn't so bad, either; they always bleed a lot like that. She will be unconscious for a while, though. Well, she's already been out for a while, so hopefully for us, she'll wake up soon."

"Why do I have de feeling dat you know something we don't?" Ace asked her.

"Because I know a _lot_ more than you at this point," Claire replied as she started searching her pockets again. "Allow me to fill you in. So, before Ceci sent us hurtling through time, she told us that she and Celeste were going to help Velvet take the converter using the time machine. We remembered this when we got back, and after finding you guys gone, the first thing that we did was go back in time and take the converter before they did. Long story short, it worked, but they somehow figured out that we took it before them, so Velvet proposed to trade you guys for the converter. We suspected a trap, so we came up with a plan, and, well, here we are."

"I take it your plan didn't work, then?" Duck asked dryly.

"No, it worked." That confused us even more.

"Claire? Did they get the converter?" Wolfe asked.

"Uh...well, you see, we didn't have time to make a convincing fake. We scrambled the real one as much as possible, so that hopefully did something. The good news is that we have a tracker on it, so it's not like we don't know where it is."

"Claire..." Wolfe growled, threatening a lecture.

"Hey, it was either that, or let you guys possibly die," Claire retorted, still searching herself for something.

"Okay, _what_ are you looking for?" Psycho asked, unable to curb his curiosity any longer.

"I'm looking for- oh, wait! Now I remember where I put it!" she exclaimed as she ripped her hat off of her head and flipped it upside-down. Something clattered out of it and onto the floor, and Claire felt around for a moment to find it in the darkness. Whatever it was, it was very small, and even though I was sitting very near her, I couldn't see it.

She held it in between her thumb and index finger and squeezed it. She moved it so it was lying flat on her palm, and we could see a small, red, glowing dot in the middle of her hand.

"Uh, Claire? What is that?" I asked.

"It's a tracking device!" Claire triumphantly announced.

"So Tech and Sive can find us now?" Rev asked excitedly.

"About that..." Claire began, but she stopped talking as Mei started moving. She moved her head a little, and winced and put her hand to her head.

"Ow..." Mei quietly groaned, barely audibly.

"Mei!" Donny shouted excitably. "Are you okay?"

"Hay caramba," Mei mumbled to herself. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Donny with a slightly questioning look. She then looked over at Claire and groggily said, "You haven't told them yet?" She sounded a bit different, but I supposed it was only because she had just woken up and was in pain. Though I never remembered her speaking Spanish...

"I was getting to it," Claire retorted. "But seriously, are you okay?"

"Is anything broken?" Mei asked.

"No."

"Then I'll manage." She slowly sat up, and switched from covering her head with her hand to her chest. She still had a grimace on her face. She didn't sound like herself at all, but her voice still sounded familiar. I just couldn't place it...

"Mei, are you sure you're okay?" Donny asked concernedly.

Mei looked back at him, then back to Claire and said, "Tell them what's going on while I work on the door." I was glad to see that Mei was at least relatively okay, but there was something _weird_ going on.

"Okay, okay," Claire said as Mei slowly and carefully got to her feet and walked to the cage door. She snapped a couple of times, and was obviously unhappy with the result; nothing. "These bars are made of some type of curium; you'll have to use the lenses." Mei blinked hard, and when she opened her eyes again, they were glowing red.

"Are dose...our night vision lenses?" Ace asked.

"Yes. I'm wearing a pair, too; I just haven't turned them on, yet," Claire replied.

"Claire, what's going on?" Nega asked. "I have the feeling that we're missing something."

"And is it just me, or does Mei sound kind of like...Sive?" Rev asked hesitantly, worried he'd sound crazy, but he was right. I hadn't been able to place it earlier, but that was definitely Sive's voice I was hearing.

"Hey, look who caught on," Mei said sarcastically in Sive's voice as she started feeling along the fabric of the sleeves of her shirt.

"Yeah, you guys are missing a _lot_," Claire stated. "First things first; that's not Mei." We all looked over at not-Mei. She looked exactly like Mei, and sure, she didn't sound or act like Mei, but there was no way it could be anyone else. At least, that's what _I _thought.

"Both Mei and Donny have the ability to change their own appearances," Claire explained, "but if they really put their minds to it, they can change the appearance of others, too. It's so hard for them, we hardly ever ask them to do it, though."

"So, dat's actually...Sive?" Ace asked as he looked back at not-Mei.

"You got it, Ace," Sive replied as she pulled something out of the fabric of her shirt. It looked like two bits of wire; one perfectly straight and slightly thicker than the other, and the other was all bent up. She stuck them both in the lock and started jiggling them around.

"Why the need for the disguise, though?" Nega asked.

"Because Velvet didn't want Sive or Tech to be there for the trade; just Mei and I," Claire replied. "But we needed Sive, so we did a switch-out."

"Why do you need Sive, exactly?" I asked.

"Simple," Sive said from her position at the door. It was strange seeing Sive speak while she looked like Mei. "I'm the only one who knows how to work-" She was interrupted by a loud click from the lock. "...Lock picks," she finished with a grin as she pushed the door open. I remembered her saying that she had them, but I thought she had been joking.

"Jailbreak!" Donny yelled as he ran out of the cell. The rest of us weren't far behind, and I stayed back a bit to help Sive (who insisted that she didn't need help, even though she was moving slowly and still had a pained look on her face.)

We cautiously made our way away from the curium-rich room. It was pitch black outside the room, so Nega led the way because she could see where she was going, and Claire turned on her night-vision lenses and came to the back of the group so she could watch our backs with Sive. We didn't encounter anyone on the way, and once we were far enough away so as not to feel the curium any longer, we stopped and let our powers come back.

I had really missed my super hearing. It was like being deaf, not being able to hear all of the minute sounds I was used to. The sounds of cars on the nearby streets, the people talking, and, if I really listened, the breathing and heartbeats of others. This had all become white noise to me in the time I had the power, but I had noticed its absence, and I relished its return. But there was one thing I noticed that interested me...

"We need to get out of here without attracting Velvet's, Ceci's, or Celeste's attention," Wolfe said. "We just have to be slow and careful as we-"

"Wolfe, we're the only ones in here," I interrupted. I didn't hear any other breathing or heartbeats in the whole building, which didn't rule out shadow creatures, but did rule out any humans. "There are probably shadow creatures, but they don't breathe or have heartbeats. The only ones I hear are ours."

"That makes our jobs a _lot_ easier!" Psycho exclaimed gleefully.

"Laela, can ya take a look at de building and figure out how many shadow creatures we're dealin' with?" Ace asked.

"Of course," Laela replied as she looked around. I had never noticed this before, but her eyes glowed a faint blue when there was absolutely no light. It was a little freaky-looking. "I cannot see the whole building from here, but I can tell you that there are very few shadow creatures here."

"Good," Wolfe said. "Claire, Sive, do either of you have more of those lenses by any chance?"

"We would have brought them if we could have," Claire replied apologetically, still not fully up to her usual speed yet, but still faster than an average person.

"Here, I have something," Sive said. "Claire, turn off the night vision, and everyone else, shut your eyes." Everyone in the Loonatics knew what was coming, and we shut our eyes as tight as possible, but the L5 had no idea, and a couple of them yelped in surprise a moment later. I slowly opened my eyes, and squinted against the bright light coming from Sive's hand. She still looked like Mei, so it was a strange sight.

"Sive, when will you start looking like yourself again?" I asked curiously as everyone either opened their eyes or recovered from the flash.

"Only-Mei-can-turn-her-back," Claire answered for Sive with her usual speed. "We'll-just-have-to-wait-until-we-meet-up-with-her-again."

Sive was generating enough light to illuminate the whole room. I had never seen her do so much before, but I didn't doubt that she could do it. We all looked around the room we were in, but there wasn't much to see; it was completely bare.

"Now dat we can see where we're goin', I recommend we get out of here," Ace announced.

"Seconded. Let's move," Wolfe ordered.

We quickly made our way through the building, being careful to avoid any shadow creatures. We could've taken them in a fight, but we didn't want to alert every one of them in the building that we had escaped. Plus, we couldn't risk it in case they had some type of system that alerted Celeste, Ceci, and Velvet when something was wrong.

We didn't exactly know where we were going, but Laela could tell we were a few stories off of the ground based on the auras she could see, so we wandered around looking for staircases. Before we found one, though, we came across a very large room that, unlike all of the rest, wasn't bare. There was a big, complicated-looking computer system all along one wall, with multiple screens and keyboards and a chair with wheels to work at them all. There were large stacks of crates all through the room as well.

"This is a little spooky," Sive said as she held her hand high and increased the charge to see better.

"We should keep going," Wolfe advised as he looked around for a door leading out of the room. We all got distracted when Claire suddenly dashed forward, sat down at the chair, and woke up one of the computers. "Claire, what do you think you're doing?"

"We-still-don't-know-what-Velvet's-plan-is-right?" Claire asked. "I-can-probably-figure-out-what-it-is-using-this-because-it-looks-like-an-old-fashioned-master-computer-system-well-not-old-fashioned-for-this-time-but-still."

"Good thinkin', Claire," Ace commended. "De rest of us can look for a way out of dis room, because I don't see one. It's probably somewhere behind dese crates. Slam, Nega Duck, you three stay with Claire. Donny, can you turn into Sive and give us another light?"

"Sure thing, Ace," Donny replied half in his voice and half in Sive's as he morphed. It took him a couple of tries, but he was eventually able to generate light like Sive could. He couldn't make it as bright as she could, but it would work.

"Okay, we'll split up from here," Ace said. "Donny, Wolfe, Buzz, Rev, you be one group and go dat way. De rest of you, come with me."

We broke off into our respective groups and started searching for an exit. The crates were piled up to the ceiling, and we couldn't see around them, so we had to walk around the many rows of them to find an exit. It became apparent that this could take a while when we realized just how big the room was; it was at least six times as large as we originally thought.

"We aren't gettin' anywhere with dis..." Ace observed. "Let's split into smaller groups so we can cover more ground. Laela, you can see where you're goin', so you and Psycho head dat way. Lexi, Sive, you two come with me."

We broke off into our respective groups (again) and continued wandering around. Psycho and Laela opted to stay near the wall, while Ace, Sive, and I headed down the middle of the room towards the back wall.

I had been busy looking for a door, so I hadn't been paying attention to what I was hearing. I immediately snapped to attention as I heard a click that I recognized as a door opening. I listened intently, hoping to hear nothing out of the ordinary and finding that someone else had found the door. I was disappointed; I heard two more heartbeats than there should have been. And they were close.

"Ace," I said quietly, getting his attention. Sive stopped and looked back at me as well. "There are two more people here, and they're getting closer."

Ace instinctively reached for his sword, though he didn't have it. Our gear had been confiscated when we first arrived, but we hadn't found any of it, yet. We were hoping to find it along our way out, otherwise we would come back for it later.

We cautiously crept forward, Sive keeping a little bit behind Ace and I so as not to give away our location with her light. As we came up near the end of a line of crates, I slightly pulled back on Ace's shirt and held one hand with my palm out towards Sive in a 'stop' gesture. I could hear two people around the edge of the crate. They had stopped, too; probably because they could see the light.

Ace held up his hand and gave a silent countdown with his fingers. When he hit zero, all three of us jumped around the edge of the box and faced the intruders. All of us were surprised; we came face-to-face with Tech and Sive. Tech was holding one of his ray-guns, and Sive was generating electricity around her hands to zap anything that got too close. It was obviously a Sive-double, like Donny had done earlier, but we had no explanation for Tech being there. Not-Sive and Tech were both wearing night vision lenses, and they shied away when they were hit with Sive's light.

"_Wow_, that's bright!" not-Sive said as she deactivated her night vision. Tech did the same as not-Sive morphed into one of the twins. I suspected it was Mei.

"We were hoping to bump into you guys, but this wasn't what we had in mind..." Tech said.

"Are you all okay?" Mei asked.

"We're all okay, more or less," I said with a sideways glance at Sive. She either didn't notice or ignored it, but Mei and Tech followed my gaze and saw the bit of blood in Sive's hair and on her clothes.

"Are you…Donny? Or Sive?" Mei asked. I found it a little odd that she couldn't identify her twin, and yet no one could, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

"What happened to you?" Tech asked her worriedly as he approached her.

"Velvet nailed me, but I'm alright," Sive replied dismissively. "I'm fine. Really, I am. But, uh, Mei, would you mind...?"

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot," Mei said as she walked toward Sive and grasped her hands. She concentrated for a moment, and Sive slowly but surely morphed back into her usual self. Mei looked a little tired when she was done.

"Much better!" Sive exclaimed as she looked herself over.

"Everyone else is in here, too," Ace replied. "We're lookin' for a way out."

"The door's back there," Tech replied, jabbing his thumb backwards. "Oh, and we found these." He held up two identical swords; Ace's and Wolfe's Guardian Strike Swords. He handed one of them to Ace and said, "That one's yours. The handle is way more worn on this other one."

Ace gratefully reclaimed his sword as two more people rounded another corner. One of them was another Sive, and the other was Wolfe, meaning that Sive was probably Donny. The other group had probably split up, too. They both looked very surprised to see all of us, but Donny almost immediately recovered. He ran over to us yelling "Mei!" and wrapped his twin in a tight hug. This was a strange sight considering how he still looked like Sive, but Mei figured out who he was soon enough and returned the hug.

Wolfe walked up to us and asked, "Where did you guys come from?"

"We followed the tracking device that Claire and Sive activated," Tech explained as he pulled a mobile device out of his pocket. The screen showed a simple layout of an area of Acmetropolis, and there were two blinking dots on the screen. "The dot right in the middle is where we are. The other one is the tracker we have in the converter."

"That means that we probably know where Celeste, Ceci, and Velvet are," Wolfe speculated.

"Do you guys know what their plan is, yet?" Tech asked. He handed Wolfe's sword back to him and said, "Oh, and this is yours, Wolfe."

Wolfe gladly took his sword as I answered Tech. "We found a computer at the other end of the room. Claire's working to see if she can find anything."

"We should head back up there and see what she's found," Wolfe announced. He placed a hand on one of the Sives' shoulder (I had lost track of who was who,) and said, "Donny, lead the way."

He had placed his hand kind of heavily on Donny's shoulder, and when he winced and cringed a bit in pain, I realized that wasn't Donny. "Wolfe, I'm Sive," she stated through gritted teeth.

Wolfe quickly drew back his hand and said, "Sorry, Sive!"

"Actually, we don't need Sive's light," Mei informed us as she took off the small backpack she was wearing. She opened it up and pulled out a box labeled 'Night Vision.' She opened it and we all grabbed a pair of lenses from inside and put them on as Sive and Donny killed the remaining light and Donny morphed back into himself.

We made our way to the front of the room. Ace, Wolfe, and I led the way while Donny and Sive caught Tech and Mei up on what they missed. I wasn't paying much attention to their conversation, but when we were almost there, I overheard part of Tech and Sive's conversation.

"Are you _sure_ you're alright?" Tech asked her worriedly. "It looks like you took quite the hit, there."

"Tech, I'm _fine_," Sive insisted. "I said you don't have to worry about me, remember?"

"That doesn't mean that I won't," he replied. I wondered what I had missed between these two while we were separated, and deeply regretted not being able to see it.

We got back to the front of the room and found everyone else had gotten back and were gathered around the computer. Claire was using her night vision to see the screen, Nega was looking over her shoulder, and everyone else was looking straight at us. We must have been a scary sight considering how all they could see were the red, glowing night vision lenses and Velvet's shadow boys also had red, glowing eyes. Rev and Laela knew who we were, though.

"Tech! Mei!" Rev yelled as he zipped over to us and attack-hugged Tech and Mei at the same time. (At least, I _think_ it was Mei…) Everyone else looked mildly confused because they couldn't see us, except for Nega and Claire, who both spared us half a glance before turning back to the screen.

Mei handed out lenses to everyone (except for Nega, who didn't need them, and Laela, who wouldn't have been able to use them, anyway,) while Wolfe explained what had just happened and Tech joined Claire at the computer. It was quiet for a moment before we all heard a simultaneous "Whoa" from Tech and Claire at the computer. We all turned to them as they pulled up an image on the large monitor so we could all see. It was a schematic showing a series of complicated looking diagrams, but for the life of me, I couldn't understand it. It didn't look like anyone else could, either.

"Pretty picture," Nega said, "but what does it _mean_?"

"This first part at the top describes the machine Velvet is going to use for her plan," Tech explained. "So, the converter on its own doesn't have a lot of power. It can only affect one sentient being at a time. But do you guys remember Zadavia telling us that Velvet stole a military-grade laser cannon? If she hooked it up to that, then it would have a lot more power. It would still only be able to affect whatever it directly hits, though."

"Velvet-seems-to-have-known-that-though-which-is-what-the-second-part-of-this-is-about," Claire explained. "If-she-bounced-the-resulting-beam-off-of-a-satellite-then-if-she-found-the-right-satellite-then-its-effects-could-be-spread-_worldwide_."

"That's a _bad_ thing, right?" Psycho asked.

"Here's the thing," Tech said as he turned to face us. "There aren't that many satellites that are built well enough to take that kind of blast and still be able to bounce back the beam in the form of waves to affect the planet. In fact, I believe there are only two. One of them doesn't even pass over Acmetropolis at all in its orbit. If the date on this computer is correct, then the other one should be passing right over us in a matter of _hours_."

"That's a _really_ bad thing, right?" Psycho asked.

"Psycho, shut up!" Sive ordered.

"Claire, you said that you guys trashed the converter, right?" Wolfe asked.

"Uh… Yes-but-we-still-don't-know-what-Ceci's-capable-of," Claire stated grimly. "She-may-be-able-to-repair-it."

"Den we've gotta stop dem before dat satellite gets here!" Ace stated determinedly. That was essentially our cue to leave.

We got out of the building in a short amount of time, and used Tech's device to follow the tracker in the converter. We were hoping that no one had found it and discarded it. If someone had found it, they could always have used it to lay another trap for us, but we had to take that chance. We could only imagine what Velvet could do with the bio-converter in her hands.

**A/N: Okay, I'm not sure when I'll have the next chapter up. Probably sometime next week, but I have this special program I have to do over the summer in order to get into this honors society at my school, and I still have to help my dad and such, so I'll get it up as soon as I'm able. Again, I'm sorry for my crazy updating schedule, but please bear with me in this really odd time I'm going through. Anyways, R&R!**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: I apologize for the lateness, but this has been a crazy week… Did anyone hear about that massive storm that hit the Midwest last Tuesday? Yeah, I was in the middle of that. We didn't have power for a **_**long**_** time. Not to mention the fact that my dad came back from his surgery in the middle of that storm, so we had to help him, and then the neighbor's tree came down, and then my **_**other **_**neighbor's tree came down… It was Armageddon out there! …Anyways, we didn't have power for a good, long time, so I couldn't type, hence the lateness. I apologize, but you can pin this one on mother nature and ComEd. …Lousy ComEd…**

**In other news, this chapter is pretty average in length, and the action doesn't really start until next chapter. I wanted to have some of it in this one, but then it would have been so unbearably long, and the next one might have been so unbearably short… Yeah. So, after this, there are only 2 chapters left! DX Where does the time go?**

_May 9, 2775_

**Celeste's POV**

This couldn't have worked out any better. Almost all of the Loonatics and L5 were locked up in a cage where they couldn't interfere with us, and the remaining members were no real threat. Things were moving along smoothly with Velvet's plan as well; Ceci had managed to fully repair the bio-converter despite the Loonatics' efforts to disable it, and she had done the final assembly of the device. She was calibrating and aiming it so it would hit the orbiting satellite as planned last I checked.

Velvet and I had been wandering around the building, talking about whatever came to mind. She asked me a lot of questions about the future, and I was careful to sidestep them. I was a villain, but even _I_ didn't want to possibly screw up the future that much. Besides; all that was about to happen would change the future as I knew it, anyway. Then, I thought of a question that had been bugging me for a while.

"So, why exactly are you doing this?" I asked. "You could always use the converter to change just yourself back, yet you decide to alter the rest of the world to be like you. Why?"

"Because it's not fair," Velvet replied, sounding angry at no one. "I've had to live with my...disfigurement, for years while everyone else got to carry on with their normal lives. I want them all to feel the pain I've felt... Then the whole world will be altered to fit everyone's new needs, but before that's done, they will all experience what I've experienced."

"Huh..." I said as I'd thought it over. Personally, I thought my great-great-great-grandmother was a little crazy, but I was going to get what I wanted from all of this, so it made no difference to me.

"Velvet!" an unfortunately familiar, high pitched, annoying voice called from down the hall. Ceci flew around a corner and landed in front of us. She was still wearing those ridiculous looking goggles, and she was covered in mechanical grease up to her elbows. "I finished it! All you have to do is push the sequence of buttons like I showed you earlier and you're good to go!"

"Good, good," Velvet muttered. "A short time from now, the satellite will be overhead, and we'll be all set."

"Uh, Celeste? Should we maybe, uh...go home now?" Ceci asked. "I mean, it'll be pretty bad if we get caught up in that beam..." It would actually only be bad for her since Velvet and I already had the effects that would be caused by the machine, but that didn't matter to me. I wanted to see this through to the end, and there was no way I was going anywhere. Besides; Ceci had outlived her usefulness.

"Sure, Ceci..." I said. She turned around and raised her arm to fire a portal. "But before we go..."

I formed a small, concentrated orb of shadow energy about the size of a pea, held it there for a moment, and fired. I had done that trick before, and it essentially acted like a bullet because of how dense it was and how fast it traveled. It hit Ceci in the back, and it was a through-and-through shot that went through her heart. She was dead before she hit the ground.

"Cool trick," Velvet said as I stooped down next to Ceci's still outstretched arm. "You'll have to teach it to me sometime."

I took her gauntlet off of her arm and put it onto mine. It was a little heavy, and a little tight since her wrist was skinnier than mine, but manageable. "Maybe later," I replied as I inspected the machine. With the modifications she had made earlier to create the vacuum-like vortex, it only acted as a time machine, now, but that was fine by me.

I turned to Velvet and said, "Let's make the final preparations."

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

We made it to the area the converter was in about an hour, maybe more. It was at the top of a very high hill on the outskirts of town, and we didn't realize why until we saw the building it was in.

"I don't believe it," Tech said in awe as he looked up at the building, down at his screen showing the tracker locations, then back up to the building. "It's in the Jones Observatory!"

It was tall, even for an observatory. It had the classic cylindrical shape and curved top that made it look like an old grain silo. On one part of the dome at the top, there was a part that stuck out facing the city. It was the part that opened and closed to allow the telescope to see out. It was currently closed up against the night sky.

"How did we not notice Velvet taking over an observatory?" Duck asked.

"Because it's been closed ever since we dealt with Dr. Dare," Tech replied matter-of-factly. "The scientists took all of their gear, including the telescope, and moved ever since the building was declared unsafe. All of the earthquakes caused the building to come off of its foundation. I guess Velvet found some way to stabilize it and is using it as her alternate base of operations..."

"Not for long, she's not," Ace said as he started making his way towards the building. We followed, and circled around once as we got the lay of the land.

"Laela," Wolfe whispered to her, unsure of whether there were any shadow creatures or worse nearby. "Can you see any auras of anything inside?"

Laela looked up at the building for a moment. "I can't see the very top floors from here...but there is nothing at all that I can see, shadow creatures or otherwise." They apparently weren't expecting to have company, hence the low security.

We found a door on the far side of the building, but as we expected, it was locked. We wanted to stay quiet, so we didn't just blast our way in. Instead, I used my lock picks again, and we were inside in a matter of minutes. If my head and chest hadn't hurt so much, I would've been able to concentrate and do get it done quicker, but I would have to live with it for now.

We cautiously made our way inside, and immediately turned on our night vision. It was pitch black inside, and yet, all of Velvet's buildings seemed to be that way. There were two different staircases leading up, each of which with a door at the top.

"We'll split up and make our way to de top," Ace whispered to us. "Lexi, Tech, Claire, Sive, de twins and I will take de right staircase. De rest of you take de left one."

We split up and went to the top of the staircase. The door at the top was unlocked, so we quickly and quietly made our way up the first few floors unchallenged. The continuous staircase we had been using stopped a couple floors away from the top, though, so we actually had to start moving through the floors, then. We were more likely to run into someone or something that way, but we didn't have any choice.

We came to a dead-end hallway with four rooms, all with closed doors. Ace and Lexi took the first door, the twins took the second, Claire split into two and took the third, and Tech and I took the last one. Ace and Lexi quickly opened their door and looked inside, ready to blast anything that moved. They came back out a second later and mouthed "Clear." The twins were next, and their room was also clear. Claire's was the same.

Tech rapidly opened our door and scanned the right side of the room as I looked around the left. I saw something that made me loudly whisper, "Holy _shit_!"

Tech quickly spun around, caught sight of what I saw, relaxed, and muttered, "What the _hell_...?"

Seeing that Tech and I weren't about to attack anything, and we were more shocked than anything else, the others assumed we were safe, but their curiosity was definitely piqued. Tech and I stood aside as everyone else filed into the room, and there was a collective gasp of surprise as Tech and I followed them in.

At the end of the room, was Ceci. She was lying there, face down, in a large pool of blood. It was a pretty grotesque sight, and I had no idea what could've happened. It also didn't escape my notice that the twins were freaked out by that scene.

"Claire," I quietly whispered. She turned to me, and I gave a curt nod towards the twins. She caught on to what I was trying to tell her, and she zipped over to the twins and started directing them towards the staircase at the opposite end of the room. Unfortunately, what with what job we had and all, we saw some things a lot of people shouldn't ever see on a regular basis. This took the cake, though, and I understood the twins being frightened by it; they were probably still a year or two younger than me.

I was about to follow them, when Lexi suddenly asked, "Where's her time machine?"

I took a quick look back, and sure enough, Ceci's futuristic-looking gauntlet was gone. "I have a feeling that whoever did..._that_, is the one who took it," I stated grimly.

"Until we figure out who dat is, dere's nothin' we can do," Ace stated as he turned and followed Claire and the twins. The rest of us followed.

We made our way up the staircase to the floor right beneath the top of the dome, where a telescope would usually go. Tech had told us that the way to the top was usually in the back-center of the floor, so we started heading in a direction that we hoped would lead us there. It was a circular building, so it was kind of hard to tell if we were heading in the direction that would get us there fastest. We would get there eventually; we just didn't have a lot of time to waste.

We still didn't see anyone on the way, which was very strange. Velvet and Celeste would keep low security so long as they thought we were out of the way, but not _this_ low. They both fell under the 'crazy' category of super villain; not 'over confident.'

After a short amount of time, we reached a back room with a door on two of the four walls, and a staircase that started in the center of the floor and led up one wall up to a trapdoor in the ceiling. I had never seen anything like that.

"That door up there leads to the viewing room," Tech informed us. "That's where the telescope us usually kept, and according to the tracker, where the converter is. Velvet and Celeste are most likely up there, too."

"I don't like how easy dis has been..." Ace announced. "I feel like we're walkin' into somethin'."

"These guys are so predictable, aren't they?" I asked dryly.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a loud crash behind us. We all immediately flipped around, but all that was there was a thick, heavy-duty looking door. It didn't have a doorknob, locks, or anything. There was a spot on the wall next to it that suggested a keypad had been there once, though it was gone now.

A few seconds later, we all jumped as the same sound reverberated around the room. We could tell it was coming from the door, but if it was locked, we had no way of opening it and checking who was on the other side; there were no door knobs or locks that we could see.

"That's-a-reinforced-door-so-if-someone's-trying-to-break-it-down-then-they're-not-going-to-go-anywhere-any-time-soon," Claire stated.

"Lexi, can you hear anythin' on de other side?" Ace asked.

"Not really...there are people talking, but I can't tell who through the door," Lexi admitted.

"Sive, would you mind checkin'?" Ace asked.

"Sure thing, Ace," I said as I walked up to the door. I phased my head through to take a look at the other side, and ended up yelping and quickly pulling my head back as a very large something into the door at full speed. There was another loud crash in the room we were in. Technically, if whatever-it-was had hit me, it would've just gone right through me. I was just...startled.

"Well that could've been really bad..." I said mostly to myself. I turned back to the others, who looked ready to attack anything on the other end of the door, and reassuringly told them, "We're okay, guys." I poked my head back through the door, and saw a group I immediately recognized.

"Marco!" I called out jokingly.

Duck, who had been standing directly in front of me, jumped a few feet in the air, and everyone else yelled in surprise. Well, except for Psycho, who calmly said, "Polo." It looked as if I had just woken him from a daydream or something. Once he realized who I was, Wolfe gave him an 'are-you-serious?' look, and Psycho shrugged and replied, "It's a reflex."

"Where did _you_ come from?" Duck asked indignantly as I fully stepped into the room.

"Well hello to you, too," I said to him dryly. I turned to Wolfe and said, "The rest of us are in a room just ahead. That's a reinforced door, so there's no getting it open."

"Could you perhaps get us through it?" Laela asked. "It would be far easier than poor Buzz and Slam trying to beat it down."

"Oh, so that's what that was," I said as I leaned on the door. At that point, Slam was closest to me, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door. Rev was next, followed by Psycho, Nega, Buzz, Duck, Laela, and finally Wolfe.

"Oh, so dat was you guys," Ace said after we had all come through the door.

"Why did you all scream?" Lexi asked bemusedly.

"Sive-scared-the-beejezus-out-of-us!" Rev exclaimed as he playfully gave me a little shove from behind. It hurt a little with my chest and all, but I was able to keep a straight face.

"Not to mention she made Duck jump five feet into the air," Nega added playfully.

"Hey! It was two at the most!" Duck exclaimed, trying and failing to defend himself and giving everyone else a good laugh in the process.

"Did you guys find anything on your way up?" Wolfe asked. "That staircase we took was one continuous way up with no other way out, so we saw nothing."

"Ceci's dead," Ace stated, skipping right to the point. The room fell silent, and everyone in Wolfe's group wore a shocked expression.

"Uh...wha-... _How_?" Wolfe finally managed to ask.

"No clue, but her time machine was gone," Ace responded. "De way I see it, it's one less villain to deal with. It makes me wonder what happened, though."

"I could see Celeste doing something like that," Nega said. "Using others for personal gain then getting rid of them after they outlived their usefulness? Yeah, that's textbook Celeste for you."

"Uh, guys?" Tech interjected. We all turned to him. "I'd love to discuss theories as to what happened to Ceci as much as the next guy, but that satellite's going to get here soon."

"Oh, right," Wolfe started as he remembered why they were there. He seemed to be a pretty forgetful guy. He looked up and said, "I take it that's our door?"

"Yup," Ace replied, also looking up. He turned to me and said, "Sive, you want ta do de honors?"

"Love to," I replied as I pulled my lock picks out again and got to work on the trapdoor. It was an easy lock, and it popped open in seconds.

I cautiously came up into the room, the rest of the team hot on my heels. I let a few other people get ahead of me before we rounded a corner and came into a huge room. There was a large platform that covered the front and sides of the room, and there was a large dip in the center of the floor that went all the way to the back. I supposed that was where a telescope would go. There were a few scattered boxes and crates around the room, but the most prominent thing was the large, cannon-like object about thirty feet away from us. There was a set of stairs leading up to a control panel on the back of the machine, where we saw Velvet and Celeste doing something.

"What's up, docs?" Ace called out to them. They both flipped around in surprise, and stared at us with shocked expressions.

"How did you-?" Celeste began.

"That's for us to know and you not to find out," I replied smartly.

"It doesn't matter how you managed to escape," Velvet said as she pushed one more button on the machine. It immediately came to life, and started charging up power for the beam. "You have about five minutes until this thing goes off and hits the satellite, and there's no way to turn the ray around this time."

"But just to make sure you're busy..." Celeste said maliciously as she waved her hand. Shadow walkers started materializing around the room, and Velvet had summoned some of her shadow boys as well. All-in-all, we were very outnumbered, but we had the shadow creatures outmatched, so it was pretty even.

At that, Ace and Wolfe immediately started barking orders. I didn't keep track as to who was saying what, I just listened until I heard my name.

"Tech, Claire; disarm dat machine! Sive, Laela; cover them! Donny, Mei, Rev, Slam, Buzz, get dose shadow creatures! Ace, Lexi, Duck; get Velvet! Wolfe, Nega, Psycho; go after Celeste!"

I ran after Tech, Laela, and Claire, but before we could get to the machine, we came upon a wall of shadow walkers. I ran in front of the others, and whipped a huge bolt of energy at them. We instantly had a pathway, and by that time, Celeste and Velvet had abandoned the machine to deal with the others, so we had a completely clear path. Tech and Claire immediately started working at the controls of the machine, and Laela and I stayed on the stairs to keep anything from going up.

Whenever anything did try coming up, Laela either threw an explosive orb at it (if it was a shadow boy,) or I gave a weak pulse of electricity (for shadow walkers.) The shadow boys were harder to get rid of, and Laela could make more orbs than I could make electricity, and I was trying to save power. It was going to be a _long_ night.

**A/N: Okay, so that's that. I have a long weekend thanks to Independence day, so I'm going to hope I can get a lot done over the weekend and try to post something early next week, but with my crazy schedule, I'm not making promises. Not to mention I'm probably not going to get much done on the 4****th****… We like to blow off our own fireworks (even though it's illegal in the area I live in… shush!) so that day's kinda blown, pun not intended. Anyways… R&R!**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Just a tip to writers everywhere: When writing sad parts, NEVER listen to Evanescence while doing it! XD Anyways, this one is **_**long**_**! And… I got it up on time! YAAAYY! I'll try to get the last chapter (gasp!) up sometime over the weekend.**

**Fair warning: Lots of POV switching in this chapter!  
**  
_May 9, 2775  
_  
**Nega's POV**

Once Wolfe and Ace had finished barking out orders (literally in Wolfe's case,) we had all sprang into action. I saw Tech, Claire, Laela, and Sive take off towards the machine, and Rev, Slam, Buzz, and the twins break into two groups- the twins were one group and Rev, Buzz and Slam were the other,- and each group took one side of the room and started swatting shadow creatures like flies. They were being more cautious than usual to avoid getting hurt, but they were still kicking butt.

Meanwhile, Ace, Lexi, and Duck were all taking on Velvet. She was good enough to hold her own against all three of them and barely break a sweat, and she wasn't making it easy for them, either. Wolfe, Psycho, and I, however, got separated by a new swarm of shadow walkers from Celeste. Psycho was a ways away from us by then, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and he was doing fine on his own. Wolfe was right behind me, cutting them all down with his sword to keep them off of me so I could handle Celeste. I could handle her on my own, but not for forever, so I was hoping this wouldn't last for much longer.

I was currently battling Celeste near the edge of the platform. There was about a fifteen foot drop to the bottom, so I was trying not to fall. Unlike Celeste, I couldn't fly.

She shot a dark beam at me, and I had to duck and roll to avoid it. I stopped as soon as I could and retaliated with a shot of my own, but she slightly shifted her position in midair, and easily dodged it. She tried throwing some short, explosive bursts, but I easily zigzagged and dodged them. I had run closer to Celeste throughout that, and when I was practically directly below her, I jumped up and gathered shadow energy around my hand to slash at her. She realized what I was doing just in time to fly backwards so I went right past her, and she shot another beam at me as I passed. I landed on my feet, and did a flip up onto my hands to avoid her blast, and did another flip to get back on my feet.

"At this rate, we'll be going all night!" Celeste sarcastically moaned. I ignored her and shot another beam at her, but she dodged it by spinning and quickly retaliated with a short burst. I couldn't move back fast enough, and it exploded at my feet, sending me flying in the process. I tumbled down the fifteen-or-so feet of slanted wall to the dip in the floor below, but managed to roll back onto my feet.

I turned around as Celeste lightly floated down from the platform above and floated a few inches above the ground in front of me. "Maybe not _all_ night..." she said thoughtfully as she looked up at the machine behind us. I looked back, too, and saw the black beam charging in the barrel of the cannon. It was getting larger by the second, and there were probably only a few minutes left until it would go off.

_Hurry up,_ I thought, willing Tech and Claire to work faster.

I turned back around just in time to see Celeste shoot another beam at me, and I leaned back on my knees to avoid it. I straightened up as I sent a whip-like burst of energy at Celeste, and she dropped to the floor and ducked down to avoid it. As she straightened up, I saw something on her wrist.

She caught me staring at it, and she smirked. "Like it?" she asked as she showed off the gauntlet on her wrist. "I just got it earlier this evening."

"So you _did_ kill Ceci!" I spat. "You haven't changed a bit, you know that? Ceci _trusted_ you! She was your _friend_!"

"Who needs friends?" Celeste asked with a shrug. "All I've ever done is use people to my advantage, and I'm pretty happy with where it's gotten me."

"And where's that; a freak of nature about to destroy the future?" I asked angrily as I shot a series of short blasts at her. I couldn't make them explode like she could, but they would still do some damage if they hit. None of them did, though; Celeste hopped back into the air and did a series of maneuvers to avoid them.

"You think _I'm_ a freak? Take a good look at yourself!" she exclaimed as she sent another beam my way. I ran around her to avoid it. "You've been a freak ever since I first knew you! No one ever liked you, you're so _different_, you've never done _anything_ right by _anyone_-" I stopped listening there. I knew I shouldn't let her get to me, but that one stung.

Celeste noticed that I was distracted, so she shot a wide beam at me that I was only just able to dodge by running off to the side. Celeste had anticipated this, though, and rushed me. I didn't see her coming until she was right in front of me, and by then it was too late to move. She socked me full-force in the jaw, and that force coupled with the speed she had been flying at was more than enough to send me flying backward.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Celeste's POV**

I smirked as one of my hits finally connected and sent Nega flying a good twenty or thirty feet away. She didn't move after she landed, so I took a second to survey the situation.

The cannon was charging and would fire in another minute or two. Velvet had taken precautions to prevent the Loonatics from stopping it while designing it; it didn't move, and once it started, she had assured me that there was no stopping it manually, or any other way. She had also taken out any and all light sources to prevent a repeat of what had happened when she first tried stealing the converter.

I looked all around the room, and was far less pleased with everything else I saw. In fact, I was just plain _ticked_, and a little worried.

The two groups of Loonatics that were taking on the shadow creatures at the sides of the room were winning by a lot. They were almost through with all of the shadow creatures on those ends of the room, and were going to go help the others in the near future. The group at the cannon was also doing a good job holding off the shadow creatures, and the two who had originally come with Nega to fight me had joined them. Velvet was still holding her own, but it was a pretty even fight, and since it was three on one, she would tire out first.

_We need more time!_ I thought, seething frustration. Then, I had an idea. I formed as many of the small, pellet-like spheres of energy as I could- about five of them- and fired them off in multiple directions at the Loonatics and L5.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Donny's POV**

The fight was going well. Mei and I were kicking butt, and so far, none of the shadow creatures had been able to touch us. Mei and I were fighting back-to-back, each of us morphing into another person every few seconds. It was fast-paced, and I had to pay close attention to everything around me to avoid getting killed.

We were almost through dealing with the shadow creatures around us when it all went downhill like an avalanche. I heard Mei let out something between a scream, a gasp, and a cough. I turned around just in time to see her fall to the ground, morphing back into herself. A large, red stain was quickly spreading over her chest, and shocked expression was plastered on her face, her eyes staring unblinkingly forward.

Before the shock of what had just happened hit me, something else did. Whatever-it-was hit me in the side of my head with enough force to make my head snap in the opposite direction, which probably almost broke my neck. Everything felt numb afterward, except for one spot on my head where I had been hit. I felt something wet rapidly moving down my neck and back, and when I reached out to touch it, my hand came back covered in red. Then, I blacked out.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Rev's POV**

This was one of the easiest fights I had ever been in. I was running around, keeping a bunch of the shadow walkers away from Buzz and Slam so they could deal with them without getting swarmed. Buzz and Slam were doing pretty good, though; one swing of one of their arms and three shadow creatures were out.

I was running around and around the last group of shadow creatures- about a dozen of them, maybe a little more. I was effectively keeping them in one place, and none of them were fast enough to touch me as I ran past.

I was about ready to move on so Buzz and Slam could deal with this group, when suddenly, something hit me. It went into my arm, and kept going through my side. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to knock me off course and slam into Buzz, almost knocking him off balance.

I slumped to the floor, gasping for breath, but it felt as if I couldn't breathe. I vaguely heard Buzz shout "Slam!" but I was so dazed it didn't really register. I got lightheaded, and blacked out a moment later.

**xoxoxoxox  
**

**Tech's POV**

Wolfe and Psycho had started helping Laela and Sive keep the shadow creatures away a moment earlier, and I was grateful for it; they seemed to be more interested in getting us away from the machine than anything else, and the two of them were struggling a bit on their own. I briefly wondered what had happened to Celeste and Nega, but I was too busy trying to crack the machine at that moment. It was proving to be impossible, and I was worried we wouldn't be able to hack it in time. We would've just disabled the converter if we could, but it was built into the machine somewhere, and we didn't have time to dismantle the thing.

I looked up for about two seconds, and almost immediately wished I hadn't. The following events happened all in a matter of seconds: At first, I was glad to see everyone doing just fine in all of their battles. Then, Mei fell, followed closely by Donny. As far as I saw, nothing had hit them, and yet the sight of the front of Mei's shirt and the side of Donny's head were enough to prove me wrong. I was so shocked, I stopped working and fully looked up and around. I heard Buzz yell out to Slam, and I turned to see him supporting an unconscious Rev. A pool of blood was collecting on the floor underneath him, and Buzz looked totally panicked. Slam did, too, when he realized what had just happened.

I turned back around just in time to see Laela fall to the ground, a large, red stain spreading across her back. I didn't even see what had hit her.

I turned around to yell to Sive and Claire, to warn them about what was happening, silently panicking to myself, but I was met with another terrible sight; Claire had just collapsed. I knelt down next to her immediately, though I had figured out what was wrong with her; _Rev_. If he had...died, then Claire would fade. I didn't even want to think of that possibility, though it looked like the only one; as far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with her, though she was staring at the ceiling with a blank expression.

I looked up to Sive to tell her what I knew, when I saw something behind her heading right for her. It looked like a small, black, pellet, and it was coming in at a high speed. In about a second and a half, I put two-and-two together and realized that those things were what had hit the twins, Rev, and Laela, and I knew I had to do something before it hit her. She wouldn't be able to recognize the threat and phase in time to avoid it.

"_Sive_!" I shouted as I tackled her to the ground. I felt something tear into my side, and then Sive and I landed in a heap.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Sive's POV**

One second, I was shooting a wide wave of electricity at an approaching wave of shadow creatures, and the next thing I knew, Tech had shouted "_Sive_!" and tackled me to the ground. I wasn't really sure how to react to that.

I sat up, turned to Tech, who was still lying on the ground, and said, "Tech, what are you-?" I immediately stopped talking when I saw the pool of blood collecting around his midsection. He was covering a spot on his side with his hands, just above his hip, he was breathing hard, and he had a pained look on his face. "Oh my God! _Tech_!" I shouted as I half-ran half-crawled to him from my position on the floor. I turned around and shouted, "Claire!" She was a medic, and I had no idea what to do. Unfortunately, she was lying on the ground with a blank expression that was just a little creepy. She didn't move at all, and I realized with a sickening feeling in my stomach that I was on my own. I couldn't see anyone else from where I was, and odds were, they wouldn't hear me over all of the noise.

I turned back to Tech, pushed his hands out of the way, and put pressure on his wound. Everyone who has ever seen a crime drama or doctor-related sitcom knows to at least do _that_. He gave a grunt of pain and winced in response to the pressure, but I didn't let up. "Sorry," I muttered to him.

"It's fine," he grunted quickly, saying as much as he could with one quick breath. "Are you alright?"

"_Me_? You're lying here bleeding to death and you're worried about _me_?" I asked incredulously. That was when I realized something; he was _bleeding to death_. He wasn't regenerating. "Tech…why aren't you regenerating?"

"I think this is…shadow energy," he replied quickly. "Can't…regenerate from it." I remembered our incident with Velvet when she first tried taking the converter. It had taken him almost three days to recover from that. I also remembered my conversation with him that night; he had said that so long as he wasn't fatally wounded, he would be fine. This looked fatal to me.

"Tech…why did you…?" I asked, but I lost my voice somewhere in-between.

"I wasn't just going…to let you get killed," he said. He sounded tired, and he was getting weaker by the second.

"But you-" I began before he cut me off.

"Sive, I said earlier…that I would protect you," he said with a little more strength than before. "I didn't mean…just for that mission…I meant…always…I don't want to see you…get hurt." I felt tears coming to my eyes when he said that. I wasn't really sure what to say, so I stayed silent for a moment. "Sive?" Tech said. "Try not to be…so reckless in the future…"

"Look who's talking…" I whispered. "Have you ever thought that I'm so reckless because, like you, I care for those close to me?"

"Yeah, it crossed my mind…" he said with a slight smile that rapidly changed back to a grimace of pain. "I just-"

"Care for me, I know," I cut in. I wanted him to save his strength. "I care for you, too, Tech… I don't want you to go…"

Tears were streaming down my face, now. Tech's breathing was getting shallower and shallower, and I didn't know what to do to help him. I felt pretty useless right about then.

Tech gave me another weak smile, and slowly closed his eyes.

**xoxoxoxox**

**Wolfe's POV**

I was spinning around, slashing anything with my sword that got within range. Nothing was stopping me at that point, and the best part was that there were fewer and fewer of the shadow creatures with every second. This fight would be over in a matter of minutes. After Psycho, who was fighting right behind me, and I were done there, we would go help Ace, Lexi, and Duck with Velvet.

Just as I finished off the last of the shadow creatures, I felt Psycho freeze up behind me. I turned to him curiously in time to see him fall to the ground, a blank expression plastered on his face.

"Psycho!" I shouted in shock as I knelt next to him. He seemed totally fine, other than the blank expression. It seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it…

I looked up to call to someone for help, but I was met with a horrible sight. Donny and Mei were both lying, side by side, dead on the floor on one end of the room. Slam was supporting Rev, who also appeared to be dead, on the opposite end of the room, while Buzz was holding off the remaining shadow walkers. Ace, Lexi, and Duck were still fighting Velvet, oblivious to their surroundings. I still couldn't see Nega and Celeste. Laela was lying dead on the stairs to the machine.

The other two things I saw let me know what had happened to Psycho: Claire was lying on the ground, with a similar expression. A few feet away from her, Sive was kneeling next to Tech. There was a lot of blood near them, Tech wasn't moving, and Sive was sobbing.

I looked down in horror at Psycho. His ancestor was dead; he was fading, and there was nothing I could do about it. That was why it looked familiar. It was happening a lot faster than it usually did, and it was probably only a matter of hours before he disappeared completely.

With another glance around the room, I realized something; we had lost. Both Tech and Claire were out of the equation, the machine was still online, and Velvet and most likely Celeste as well were still there. Not to mention the fact that almost half of the team was dead.

I looked back to the machine, hoping for some random miracle to happen that would disable it, but it wasn't going to happen. Both Tech and…and…

No, I thought. It can't be…

The female roadrunner, our techie… I had already forgotten her name.

I turned back to the lavender coyote, only to find that I couldn't remember his name, either. In fact, I couldn't remember much about him at all…

**xoxoxoxox**

**Nega's POV**

I sat up after landing from that punch Celeste had given me, and looked up in time to see her shoot a number of small, bullet-like spheres around the room. Two hit the twins, one hit Laela, one hit Rev, and one looked as if it was about to hit Sive, but Tech pushed her out of the way and was hit instead. I heard some of their exchange as I watched Claire and Psycho fall a moment later.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the machine had finally charged up a couple minutes later. It fired, sending a pitch black, very wide beam roaring over my head. It wouldn't affect anyone until it came back down to earth in the form of waves from the satellite, and that would probably take about a minute.

"You're too late," Celeste stated gleefully as she turned back to me. "Your teammates are dead, and the world is doomed. Odds are, you'll be erased from time. Have fun with that."

I shakily got to my feet, still trying to process everything that had just happened. I was in shock, and not without good reason. Five of my teammates were dead, and two from the original Loonatics were gone, too. And I could've stopped Celeste eariler, but I froze up at just the wrong time.

_Time_… I thought curiously.

"Face it, fox!" Celeste shouted triumphantly. "You've lost!"

I turned my head just a bit, and I saw a strange, black field surrounding the city, and getting closer by the second. That was what would affect the world, and eventually, the whole planet would be surrounded by the field. Celeste then chose to rush me, gathering energy around her hand in a finishing blow.

"Maybe not…" I whispered thoughtfully as the field was about to engulf the building.

_I need to save myself… I need to save my friends… I need to save…everyone_.

Suddenly, Celeste started slowing down, as did the field. Both stopped completely right before they reached me. Then, the strangest thing started happening: Everything started moving _backwards_, including myself. Any moves I had made were repeated backwards, as were everyone else's around me. It went faster and faster, until suddenly, it stopped, with Celeste floating in front of me.

"You think _I'm_ a freak? Take a good look at yourself!" she exclaimed as she sent another beam my way. I ran around her to avoid it. "You've been a freak ever since I first knew you! No one ever liked you, you're so _different_, you've never done _anything_ right by _anyone_-"

I stopped listening there. _I don't believe it…_ I thought. _It worked!_

"Maybe I _can_ do something right…" I muttered to myself as I prepared for what was coming. Right on cue, Celeste rushed me. Instead of freezing up, though, I sent a powerful right jab to her face, making her flip once in the air before landing face-first on the ground.

Without hesitating, thinking as I went, I ran up to her, took the time machine off of her wrist, put it onto my own, (it was a very tight fit,) and ran up so I was standing directly under the line of fire from the machine. I pointed upward, and fired. A time portal flew into the air, and then stopped.

I looked back over at Celeste, and she was just starting to get up. She glared daggers at me, but before she could do anything, the machine fired. Instead of sending the laser into the sky, though, it fired straight into the time portal. I hoped that it didn't send it to a populated area; I would've set the date myself if I knew how, but I didn't, so I just had to hope for the best.

The portal closed after the full beam had traveled through it, and I looked around at the room. Donny, Mei, Rev, Tech, Claire, Laela, and Psycho all appeared to be okay, much to my relief. Donny, Mei. Rev, Laela, Sive, Psycho, and Wolfe had just dispatched the last of the shadow creatures, and I turned my head just in time to see Ace plaster Velvet against a wall with a powerful laser blast. She was out cold.

I walked up to Celeste, holding a shadow-energy charged hand out to her as a warning not to try anything. "This time around," I began, "_you're_ the one who lost." She looked very confused, and that's when I remembered that I was the only one who knew anything of what almost happened, but I wasn't going to bother wasting air explaining it to her.

"Nega!" Wolfe called to me as he slid down the wall to my level. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I replied, never taking my eyes off Celeste, who was still giving me one of those if-looks-could-kill looks.

It was finally all over.

**A/N: Yay! Endings! Of the good kind! XD So, yeah, dramatic, huh? The next (and final) chapter will be an Epilogue of sorts to wrap some things up… R&R!**


	26. Epilogue

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the lateness, but my wifi went out right after I posted the previous chapter and **_**didn't come back!**_** (Until a day or two later, but that was lost time.) Seriously, it went out as I was about to post it, and I had to wait two hours, continuously screwing with the router, for it to come back. And when it did, I ran from the room, down to the basement, logged on, and posted it. I never ran so fast in my entire life for anything, I almost killed myself, and it only took me a total of fifteen seconds to do. And then right as I finished posting it, it went out again. My parents now **_**finally**_** realize that our wifi is a $%^& piece of !#$, and we will hopefully get something better in the near future. Anyways, I'll have a longer A/N at the bottom describing what's coming next. Until then, read on!**

_May 10, 2775_

**Sive's POV**

"_Ow_!" I shouted in response to the sudden pressure to the back of my head.

"Sorry," Tech replied as he drew back a little. He was currently trying to bandage my head without hurting me in the process.

We had just gotten back to HQ after everything was taken care of back at the observatory, and the first order of business was to take care of anyone who had gotten hurt, which thankfully wasn't many of us. I was worse off than the others, though, so Tech had started out by dealing with my head wound. Claire was next to us, helping Laela, who had gotten cut on her arm by a shadow creature. Rev, Lexi, Nega, and Psycho were waiting to be helped, though none of them were too badly hurt. Ace, Wolfe, Duck, the twins, Buzz, and Slam were explaining everything that had happened to Zadavia and Dr. Chroniker, who had come over to HQ after receiving our call. He was currently examining Ceci's time machine.

The second order of business was to deal with the bad guys. Velvet was already taken care of; she was back at the prison in her dark little cell for the rest of her life. Well, that was the plan, anyway, but super villains always seemed to find a way of busting out. Celeste, on the other hand, was temporarily being held at the prison while the L5 prepared to go home. She would head back to the future with them where she would be dealt with accordingly.

"That should do it," Tech stated as he finished the bandaging. "Just don't mess with it and you'll be fine."

"Thanks," I replied as I stood up. I still had a splitting headache, but I kept quiet about it so the others could get some help.

"So-how-did-you-guys-think-of-that-escape-plan-it-was-_awesome_!" Rev exclaimed excitedly as he sat down where I had been a moment earlier.

"It was all Claire's idea," I replied.

"Well-it-wasn't-that-difficult-once-I-saw-that-lock-in-that-picture-and-remembered-seeing-a-copy-of-a-permit-for-lock-picks-in-Sive's-file," Claire replied modestly.

Lexi asked "You need a permit for lock picks?" at the same time that I asked "I have a permit for lock picks?" I knew I _technically_ needed a permit for them, but I never got around to getting one. Besides; I had gotten those back in the Navy District. There hadn't really been a need for a permit there.

"You didn't hear anything," I said seriously, keeping a straight face, as I exited the room through a wall. I heard laughter behind me, and I chuckled a bit to myself as I walked down the halls.

I ended up going into my room. I wanted to rest for a few minutes, so I lied down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I had gotten a concussion, so I wasn't supposed to sleep, so I was careful not to close my eyes, but I was exhausted. I hadn't slept more than a few hours for the past few days, not counting the time I was unconscious.

A few minutes later, Ace's voice came through the communicator. "Hey, when everybody can, come up to de livin' room."

I sighed and sat up. Before I left, I caught sight of my cell phone on my night stand, right where I had left it. I grabbed it for the heck of it, stuffed it into my pocket, and walked to the living room.

I walked in at the same time everyone who had just been downstairs with the medics did, minus Rev and Claire, who were already there with the others, Dr. Chroniker, and a holographic image of Zadavia.

"I am glad to see you are all alright, Loonatics," Zadavia said happily when we were all there. "And L5," she added. "It sounds as if you all had quite the adventure."

"Glad to see your plan worked out, Claire," Chroniker said. We had filled him in on the situation before leaving.

"So...what happens now?" one of the twins asked. I _still_ couldn't tell them apart, even after all of this.

"Well, Donny, I suppose we go home now," Wolfe responded. The twins both had shocked looks on their faces. "...What?"

"You just got my name right," Donny responded.

"You _never_ get our names right!" Mei exclaimed. "Well, not many people do, anyways, but you _never_ do!"

"Okay, okay, we get it! I suck at names!" Wolfe exclaimed. I smiled and shook my head at them.

"Will you eight need to use my time machine to get home?" Chroniker asked. He raised up Ceci's time machine and asked, "Or will you take this one?"

"I-think-we-should-just-take-this-one," Claire recommended as she took the machine back from Chroniker. "No-offense-but-it's-less-glitchy-and-we'd-have-to-take-it-back-anyway-and-I-for-one-don't-really-want-to-find-out-what-happens-when-you-put-a-time-machine-through-a-time-machine."

"I agree completely," Chroniker replied. "Besides; I'm going to be taking that time machine apart, anyway; I don't want a repeat of this episode."

"Think that was why the time machine in the future was so messed up?" Lexi quietly whispered to me, and my eyes widened when I realized she was probably right.

"Oh, and I was able to reprogram that time machine to this day, 2939," Chroniker added. "You'll be able to use it to get home, now."

"Out of curiosity, what date was it set to before?" Nega asked curiously. "I just want to know if I sent that beam to a bad time or not, or if I sent it to the past and it will affect the future."

"Oh, yes... It was, ah...March 16, 29...3...4 I believe." Nega's and Wolfe's faces fell simultaneously, and they both stared at Chroniker in disbelief. "Is something wrong?" Chroniker asked.

Nega looked at Wolfe and asked, "Do you think it's just a coincidence?"

"I don't know, that's one _hell_ of a coincidence... I mean, everything _would_ fit if that was the case..."

"Don't tell me that! Just...don't!" Nega moaned as she covered her eyes.

"What?" a bunch of us asked at the same time, myself included.

Wolfe laughed, rubbed his eyes with one hand and said, "I don't believe it!"

"How are you _possibly_ be laughing at this?" Nega asked.

"Laughing at _what_?" the rest of us shouted in annoyance.

"Do you want to explain or should I?" Wolfe asked Nega, who shook her head in response.

"That was- er, will be, I suppose, the day of the accident that affected, er- oh, you know what I mean!- the accident that affected Celeste and I," Nega explained. "So, essentially, if we had done nothing, then Celeste wouldn't have been disfigured, she never would have done any of this, that beam would never have been fired in the first place, and none of this would have happened."

"Friggin' paradoxes..." I muttered.

"Because-that-beam-didn't-hit-the-satellite-and-disperse-it-hit-you-guys-full-blast-so-it's-a-miracle-you-survived-it," Claire stated.

"Yeah, yeah..." Nega said in response. "I really wish I hadn't done what I did now... It would've been like hitting a reset button; none of this would have happened."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Psycho said reassuringly, putting one arm around her shoulder. "All's well that ends well, right?"

"Psycho, if you don't stop touching me, I'm going to break your arm." He immediately recoiled, and Nega smirked and walked away.

"Seriously though, don't worry about it, Nega," Wolfe said.

"It's all in de past," Ace added.

"You mean the future," I corrected.

"Whatever!"

"...Anyways, Celeste is in-transit here as we speak," Zadavia continued, showing no reaction to anything anyone just said. This was just business-as-usual for her. "Once she gets here, you are free to go back to your own time, L5. I'd recommend saying your farewells soon. Loonatics, until next time. L5, I wish you the best. Zadavia out." And with that, her image disappeared.

"So, we're actually going home now?" Mei asked hesitantly. Now that I knew which twin was standing where, I could tell which was which.

"Yeah…I-think-so," Claire replied in a disbelieving tone. None of us could really believe it; we had grown so accustomed to their presence, it was going to be unnatural not having them around.

"Well…I guess this is…goodbye," Lexi stated sadly. It was true; we would never see them again after this. Well, unless we got caught up in another time travel problem, but after all this, I think we were all going to try avoiding that as much as possible.

"Oh-I-don't-want-to-leave-you-guys!" Claire exclaimed as she ran up and hugged Lexi. It was obvious who the emotional one on _that_ team was.

"Ace, it was nice working with you," Wolfe stated as he shook Ace's hand.

"You too, big guy," Ace replied. I had never noticed it before, but there was a significant height difference between the two, not counting Ace's ears. Wolfe was a big guy.

Suddenly, a twin who I suspected to be Mei ran up and hugged me lightly so as not to hurt my still injured chest, and I returned the hug. "I'm going to miss you, Sive!" she said sadly.

"I'm going to miss you too, Mei," I replied as we separated. Donny was right next to her, and I turned to him and said, "Donny, try not to get yourself killed."

He chuckled and replied, "I'll try, but I can't promise anything."

"Here's a tip: Leave Claire alone," I advised jokingly as I shook his hand.

Laela walked up to me next and hugged me. "Be careful out there," she advised, almost dropping her mystical monotone. Almost.

"You too," I replied. Laela and I hadn't gotten very close throughout all of this, but I would miss her all the same.

I saw Psycho standing off to the side, so I walked up to him and said, "Hey, Psycho!" to get his attention. He turned to face me, smiled, and held out his hand, which I promptly shook. Obviously, neither one of us were the particularly emotional type.

"Sive? Could you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Uh, not sure what I could possibly do for you a hundred years in the past, but sure," I replied confusedly.

"Try not to die," he said with a totally straight face, but he started laughing after I playfully smacked him upside the head.

"Same to you," I replied dryly as I turned back to face the crowd. Buzz and Slam were talking to each other, Tech and Claire were talking to Dr. Chroniker, Ace was talking to Nega, Wolfe was talking to Lexi, Rev was talking to Laela, and the twins were talking to Duck, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Claire and Tech turned away from Chroniker, and Claire spotted me and ran over to hug me. I vaguely saw Psycho walk up to Tech out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh-Sive-I'm-going-to-miss-you-so-much!" she exclaimed as she hugged me tighter.

"I'm going to miss you too, Claire, but could you maybe let go before you break something?" I asked as I was starting to feel a throbbing pain in my chest. She was _strong_ for such a small person.

"Sorry!" she squeaked as she let go. "Have-you-said-goodbye-to-everyone-yet?"

"No, I've still got to talk to Wolfe, Nega, and Buzz."

"Oh-yeah-I-just-saw-you-talking-with-Psycho-and-you-know-you-two-look-a-lot-alike," Claire observed as we turned to look at him and Tech. I could see a slight resemblance, but only in the details, as in the blue eyes and white muzzle. "Actually-I-think-he-looks-a-lot-like-Tech-too."

This made me do a double-take. She was right, though, and since they were standing next to each other, it was easy to see the resemblance. Tech and Psycho had exactly the same build, were exactly the height, and had the same facial features. The likeness was uncanny.

"Yeah, I guess it is a little strange that they look alike," I admitted.

"Do-you-think-that-maybe-you-and-"

"Claire!" Wolfe shouted in a threatening tone from behind us. Claire squeaked in surprise and zipped off to talk to somebody else.

_Now what was that about…?_ I thought curiously.

"Is it just me, or does Claire get stranger and stranger?" Nega asked as she walked up to me.

I smirked and replied, "It seems so." Neither one of us was the emotional type as far as I knew, so I was preparing for another handshake. I was surprised when she wrapped me in an almost-tight hug.

"Nega, are you alright?" I asked as we separated. "You've been…different." It was true; ever since the end of the fight at the observatory, she had seemed less…unhappy with the world, I suppose. She overall seemed to be a brighter person.

"I've just come to terms with a few things," she replied with a shrug.

"Okay…" I said, but I wasn't going to drop it just yet. "Are you _sure_ you're not not telling us something?" We had all gotten the feeling that something had happened back at the observatory with her, but she had given everyone the same answer.

"Yep." I guess I would never know.

Nega and I walked our separate ways to say goodbye to the last couple of people we hadn't talked to, yet. I found Buzz first, and we both shook each other's hands and smiled. Like I said, Buzz was the strong-silent type, and I would've been surprised to see more from him than that.

I finally found Wolfe talking to Tech and Chroniker. "Wolfe!' I said to get his attention.

He turned around, saw me approaching, and hugged me when I got close enough. "I'm gonna miss you, Sive," he said.

"I'm going to miss you too, Wolfe," I replied.

"Want to know what I'm going to miss most?"

"What?"

"Your dry sense of humor." I playfully smacked him on the shoulder as we separated, and he laughed. It was then I realized that was one of the few times, if not the first time I had heard Wolfe laugh. All of the L5 seemed happier than when they first arrived, actually. And yet, knowing that you aren't going to spontaneously disappear anymore does that to a person.

"Sive, I've been meaning to ask you, are you okay?" Chroniker asked, gesturing to my bandaged head.

"Oh, I'm fine, Doctor, don't worry," I replied dismissively. "It's not that serious."

"But it could have been," Chroniker stated, "and then where would you have been?"

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work a pair of lock picks," I replied. "It just might have taken an hour for someone else to do it instead of a few minutes."

"Even so, it was a risky move," Tech stated.

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" I asked Tech.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that it's okay for you to constantly put yourself in harm's way," Tech said.

"Again, we already had this conversation," I said with a sideways glance at Tech.

It was then that Tech and I caught all of the stares from the L5. "What?" we both asked.

"Nothing," all of them said almost simultaneously and a _little_ too quickly as they turned away.

"That was odd…" I stated curiously.

"Yeah, no kidding," Tech replied. "What do you think that was about?"

"No clue. Maybe people from the future are just weird like that…"

Suddenly, Lexi's ears perked up. Her eyes glowed and pink rings flew up her ears, showing that she was listening intently to something. Then, it stopped, and Lexi said with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice, "Hey, guess who just showed up?"

We all got our answer a few seconds later when Celeste was led into the room, accompanied by about half a dozen police officers despite being handcuffed with cuffs that cancelled out her powers. She looked none too happy with the situation, but at least she wasn't one of those villains who screamed obscenities as they got led away. The plan for her was that the L5 would take her back to the future, where she would go to trial. Normally she would just go to jail, but erasing people from existence is a little more serious than the normal super-villain activities. Well, when their inevitable take-over-the-world plan failed, anyway.

"I guess it's time to go," Wolfe stated after a moment.

Buzz and Psycho took Celeste from the cops, who promptly exited the room. The L5 went over to one end of the room with Celeste, while the rest of us and Chroniker gathered on the opposite side of the room. Claire put Ceci's time machine onto her wrist, pointed at the wall, and fired. The familiar bright light emitted from the end of the gauntlet, and the portal plastered itself against the wall.

"Bye, everyone!" Buzz shouted behind him as he went into the portal. Psycho then shoved Celeste in after him.

"Live long and prosper!" Psycho said as he made the funny hand gesture and walked through the portal. I face palmed.

_How am I _related_ to that guy…?_

"So long!" Laela said louder than her usual volume as she went through the portal.

"See ya!" Donny and Mei shouted together as they went through at the same time.

"Be careful you guys," Nega said as she went through.

Wolfe turned back to us and said, "Just so we're clear, I don't want to see _any_ of you _ever_ again. Agreed?"

"Yes," a few of us emphatically agreed.

"Great!" Wolfe said with a double thumbs-up as he went through.

"Take-care-everyone!" Claire said as she followed them through.

The portal closed, and all was quiet.

"…Let's _never_ do that again," I said after a moment.

"Agreed," Ace replied.

"Oh, you didn't have fun, Sive?" Tech asked jokingly as he put an arm around my shoulder.

"_Fun_? How could you have had _fun_ throughout this?" I asked jokingly as I looked back up at him. "How many times were we almost killed? Five? That must be a new record, even for us…"

"No kiddin'," Ace agreed. "Hey, does anybody know what the date is today?"

"It's the tenth," Chroniker replied.

"Of what?" Duck asked.

"May."

"So-we've-been-gone-for-only-two-weeks-it-feels-like-so-much-longer!" Rev exclaimed.

"Yes, quite," Chroniker said. "Time travel has a way of throwing off your internal clock. A few minutes can feel like an eternity. But, if you'll excuse me, it's getting late, and I'd like to go back to my lab and get started dismantling that time machine."

"Sure thing, doc," Ace replied. "Thanks again for your help."

"And if you need any help dismantling the time machine, just ask," Tech added. Chroniker nodded, and left.

The rest of the day was quiet. Everyone relaxed, and we got absolutely nothing productive done. It felt good.

A little while later, I was walking around on my own, when I remembered my phone in my pocket. I took it out and flipped it open to see if I had missed anything. I had missed a lot, actually; Aaron had apparently tried calling me 36 times in the two weeks-or-so that we were gone, and I had 33 voice messages, along with 28 texts. Guess who they were all from?

_I swear, he's worse than Tech…_ I thought as I dialed his number.

I had a _lot_ to tell him about.

**A/N: IT'S OVER! Honestly, I'm kind of happy. Why? Because I had no intention of this story being anywhere **_**near**_** this long, and it was starting to get hard to keep up my will to keep it going. Oh, well, it's over now.**

**Anyways, I want to thank all of the readers who kept with this story till the very long-awaited end, and those who lasted through my delayed updates. This has been a crazy couple of months for me, and I thank you for sticking with me. **

**And next up in my story-series is… Actually, I'm not sure. I have a whole crapload of ideas for stories, I just don't know which one I want to use yet… Maybe I should do a pole to see which one you guys want next? I don't know… Jeez, I need a pole to figure out if I should have a pole… If you want a pole, say so, and I'll do one! Otherwise, you'll just have to wait and see what I come up with on my own. Either way, the wait for the next story will be considerably longer than the between-story time of my last story. Probably a month or two… Sorry, but my schedule is going to kill me, and I have a lot coming up… I promise, I will get something new up! …You know, eventually.**

**One last note: I will be developing Tech and Sive's relationship through my next couple of stories. You'll just have to wait and see where it goes. XD**

**R&R!**


	27. Poll Announcement

**A/N: Yeah, I know I said I was done, but this is just an A/N. I've received requests, and it is now official! A pole is open on my page with a few options for what my next story could be! Please go and select your favorite option! What's there is just a quick little peek at what happens in the story, kinda like a mini-summary. Well, not of the whole story, but… you get the idea. Anyways, please vote, and after a week or two, I'll close it and post the winning story to my page! I'll do the others in order of how many votes they got afterwards. Okay, I'm done now. **


End file.
